


Yu-Gi-Oh! Another Story

by FeliciaBelle



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Death to minor characters, Evolving Tags as we go along, F/M, Lorelei and Jasper are serial adopters of friends, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Other, Retelling, SHADI IS TO BLAME FOR EVERYTHING, Seto threatens to jump, This fic kills Pandas - Me, Wasn't certain if I should add 'Suicide Attempt' or not, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:00:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 86,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21565723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaBelle/pseuds/FeliciaBelle
Summary: An alternate story to the one we all know. From Duelist Kingdom to the War of the Roses to the Days of the Pharaohs, follow the gang in an epic journey.
Relationships: Alister | Amelda/OC, Katsuya Jonouchi/OC, Marik Ishtar/OC, Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner/Mutou Yuugi, Ryou Bakura/OC, Seto Kaiba/OC, Thief Bakura/Oc
Comments: 18
Kudos: 5





	1. Puzzle of the Gods

It started out like any other school day; get up, get dressed, and suffer through the long agonizing day in class. It was a routine that Lorelei and her friend Jasper were all too familiar with, they always ended up walking to school with each other and it had been tradition since they were little kids and they had no intention on breaking that (nor did they have any intention on breaking their trick or treat tradition; the candy war will never cease even after they reached college). School like any other day, sit in class and listen to the teacher mess up their notes; however, it appeared that today was going to be different. Another school had offered to take in two students from Midwich High School on either an exchange program or for a scholarship program. Naturally, both Lorelei and Jasper looked at each other and gave a thumbs up; who wouldn’t want to try their hand at an opportunity like this? So, without hesitation, they began to sign up for the program; Lorelei with her literature and art scholarship and Jasper with animation and art scholarship, they laughed to themselves afterwards, there were other applicants and they had the feeling that they wouldn’t be chosen.

They were wrong.

After learning that they were accepted into Domino High School, everything started to change. For one, after her great aunt caught wind of the transfer, she immediately arranged for the two to live with her friend, Solomon Mutou. Lorelei’s great aunt tried making it better by showing them a picture of him and reminding her that she met him when she was a little girl. (translation: Lorelei only met the man once, and she was a toddler at the time!) it also didn’t help that this was all planned behind their backs. Second off, the stupid airline messed up their tickets and Jasper left a week before she did. In that week, Jasper made sure to send her pictures of her room in progress; the new coat of blue paint with a giant spade by the headboard of her bed (For the Queen of Spades of course), the attempts of putting together a desk for her to work on (Ikea is a bitch), each update made her laugh and made the flight down to Domino easier for her when the time came. And she was right, the flight down there went by with no problem; first class seating, a whole row to herself, everything was great. What wasn’t great, however, was the fact that she was staying with a family she didn’t even know! On the bright side of things, her best friend had made it there a few days earlier and was hopefully setting her stuff up. With a shrug and a sigh, Lorelei went to the nearest payphone to call her host family and informed them she had landed safely and was ready to be picked up. A few rings in and someone answered; an elderly gentleman.

“Hello? Is this Solomon Motou?” she asked, uneasiness in her voice.

“Yes, I take it you must be Lorelei Royal, Edward told me you would be arriving, how was the flight?”

“It was okay, I slept most of the way here.” She played with the cord. “I guess you’re on your way in picking me up?”

“Yes, your friend Jasper just came downstairs. We’re on our way right now.”

“Thanks, and thanks again for hosting us.”

After hanging up, she grabbed her bags and made her way outside. Once outside of the terminal, a small white car was pulling up, as it parked a familiar lavender haired boy jumped out and rushed over, tackling the girl in a bearhug.

“Lori! Oh, it’s been torture without you! I mean, not really, but I missed you so much it felt like it, oh, never leave me again, I swear I’ll change!”

Lorelei laughed and hugged back. “Jasper, it’s been a week!” she pulled back to wipe the tears from her eyes (“curse you Jasper and you making me laugh so hard”). “I’m here now, dork.”

The two laughed again and got into the car. Throughout the ride, the four just talked and tried catching up with one another. From Jasper’s side, he had to visit their new high school and finalize the forms for both him and her, his first impression of the school was that it seemed like a good place, it was definitely going to take some time getting used to. But then he had met their homeroom teacher and never before had he felt dread in his heart. Just that one greeting and that angelic smile and Jasper knew that this teacher was vile, she was the same as their grade school art teacher and morning fourth grade teacher (the only difference is was that this teacher didn’t smell like cigarettes and hated life and took that hatred out on her students). Then came some of their classmates, there was that giant of a hall monitor who looked like a tank, and then you had that rough blonde who tried to pick a fight with someone. Lorelei made up her mind about the school; she hated it. She hadn’t even had her first class and she hated it.

“And that’s pretty much the gist of Domino so far.” Jasper shrugged. “Well, aside from the rules that everyone has to abide by or face instant expulsion, which kind of sucks. On the plus side though, we’re living in a game shop and there’s someone our age living there too; Muto-san’s grandson, Yugi.” He leaned back in his seat a bit. “He’s pretty cool, been showing me some games; Catherine, Knights of the Old Republic, He even got all the S ranks in the current Dark Deception chapters, but he mostly stays to puzzle games.”

“He’s a Star Wars geek too?” Lorelei asked.

“Yeah, he got the endings for the Sith side, the Jedi side, and the Neutral side.” Jasper added. “I think our Card Kingdom’s going to grow, wouldn’t you agree, My Queen?”

Lorelei smiled and nudged him. “Yeah, by the way what was his light saber? It was a double blade, right?”

Jasper shook his head. “He had two single blades for each hand, and he maxed out his charisma over anything. This kid is what happens when you give a Bard some swords.” 

The two laughed as they pulled up to the Kame Game shop – a two story building with a green and yellow color scheme, looking closer to the second floor one could see a boy by a window watching them, most likely Yugi that Jasper was talking about. Lorelei smiled and waved at him; he gave a small wave back. Jasper smiled and took some of her bags and led the way up to the apartment. The two talked some more and dropped off the bags into her designated room; sure enough, it was like the update pictures he would send here. A giant spade rested pretty by the headboard, and an empty spot where a desk was supposed to go, upon asking about it, all Jasper had to say was ‘Fuck that puzzle bullshit that was your desk’.

Jasper sat on her bed after helping unpack; her seven binders of Duel Monster cards sprawled out on the floor by the window (again, where that cursed desk was supposed to be before throwing that abomination in the dumpster), he laughed and laid back on the bed. “Lori, Lori why did you bring your entire collection? Someone is going to think you’re _that guy_ who lost to a kid in the championship in _one_ round!” he joked

She laughed again. “In my defense, I want to add on to my collection.” She chimed. “I mean, how often does one get to add Japanese printed cards to their collection?”

“You already have a handful of French printed cards; I’m still wondering how you managed that.”

She just threw a pillow at him. “I’m just that lucky, I guess.” She kicked her empty bags under the bed. “I’m getting kind of hungry; do you think Mr. Mutou will let us order takeout or something? I don’t want to burden him in making something for us.”

“I mean, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask, but there’s really not much in terms of takeout here.” Jasper shrugged as he shelved the last of the binders. “Like there’s only one Burger World here in town while the rest of the restaurants don’t do takeout.” He looked at her. “I guess we could go out if you aren’t too tired.”

“A-actually, Grandpa said he was planning on making a welcome dinner for you after your arrival.” 

Lorelei turned to the newcomer; a boy around her age (maybe a few inches shorter than her) was peeking around the doorframe. Spiky hair in tri-colors, big and bright amethyst eyes, this was the mysterious Yugi that Jasper told her about…he didn’t mention that Yugi was shy in general. But could she blame him? He had two strange teenagers living in the same roof as him and his grandfather! She shook the thoughts from her head and smiled at him, before responding to him.

“You must be Yugi, it’s nice to meet you. Jasper told me a lot about you, don’t worry he only told me the good stuff like how you defeated Xaldin on your first try without dying?” he just replied with a smile and shrank behind the door frame again.

“Oh, uh yeah, Jasper told me how you two were having trouble with it, but I just found it easy, didn’t even need Mickey’s help.” The other boy said.

“We could have gotten Mickey’s help!?” Lorelei cried. “How…what…when was that feature available?!”

“Oh uh, it’s sort of random, and it only happens during certain battles.” Yugi slowly came out from behind the frame, getting more comfortable around the new face. As he came out of hiding, Lorelei was able to see him holding a gold box with an eye on the front. “Also, if you’re struggling with Sephiroth, I think your best bet is to have the Ultimate Keyblade made.”

“One that I am too impatient to make.” Lorelei shrugged. “By the way, what’s that gold box you have?”

“Oh! This?” he looked down at it. “It’s a puzzle box my grandfather got from Egypt; the hieroglyphs read that the one who solves it can get a wish granted.”

“A wish? Like any kind of wish?” She asked. “Because I can think of a few things in mind.”

“Well…I guess it doesn’t hurt to try and solve it together.” Yugi offered. “Maybe if we both solve it; well both get a wish granted?”

“Well I know I’m good, besides, I’ve seen the Mummy, the Mummy 2, The Mummy Returns, and any and all of culture horror movies to know that some weird evil juju will happen. And, as I am gay, I will most likely die first.”

“Oh Jasper, don’t be silly.” Lorelei teased. “Your virgin ass isn’t going to die, that and you’re not a busty blonde girl, nor are you…well, you know what I mean.”

“Still if you two die because of this, I will sage the hell out of this place so you don’t come back; you made your bed, lie in it!” Jasper teased back.

The two friends laughed for a bit before parting for a second. Lorelei was beside Yugi and trying to solve the puzzle before dinner started. So far, they got half of the puzzle solved before Solomon called the trio over for dinner (Menu: beef bowl), the rest of the evening was spent talking and catching up with one another before everyone had to turn in for the night. School was tomorrow and the three teens needed their rest to deal with the upcoming bullshit that was about to happen.

*****

School the next day was…something. The moment Lorelei walked through the doors of the high school with Jasper and Yugi, she was already greeted to a titan of a hall monitor that looked like he was on the verge of stabbing someone, a blond delinquent laughing and joking with a brunette (pretty certain his hair was a radio antenna), girls gossiping, the atmosphere shifted dramatically whenever a blond teacher walked by. Already, in five minutes of being here, Lorelei was ready to turn tail and bolt back to the game shop. Both Jasper and Yugi noticed how stiff she was and gently held her hands to calm her down, Jasper smiled at her and just nodded to the homeroom where they would spend the rest of their school years together. They were a team and nothing was going to break them apart, they were going to push forward and get through the rest of the school year without any problems.

It was hopeful thinking. Class had started with the beautiful blond teacher introducing her to everyone and seating her by a brunette girl before starting the lesson. Well no, she hadn’t even started the lesson, she just went with a surprise inspection day – that got everyone on edge as they emptied their bags and desks out, to the relief of many it was just school books and notebooks. Lorelei however, she had a few extra things on the desk; her phone, a keychain with the game shop key on it, her wallet, and her red velvet chapstick. The entire room just held their breaths, some were already paled; granted the keychain would be safe since it was holding an actual key, but her chap stick was definitely doomed (maybe her phone, no-one was certain yet). The sickly-sweet grin from their teacher just grew as she approached the girl’s desk and picking up the tube.

“My, my, what do we have here?” she looked it over. “Red velvet flavor chapstick?”

Lorelei just looked at her, “Because I like the flavor of red velvet. It’s the best cake in the world?” she made it sound like it was obvious.

“Best flavor to ‘share’ with someone special?”

“Like who? I don’t know anyone in this school.” She was starting to become annoyed with her teacher.

Chono-sensei smirked and nodded to her friend. “Well, there’s Jasper and Yugi” she started out.

“Let me stop you there.” Lorelei replied in a harsh tone. “First of all, Jasper is my _friend_ we grew up together and can say with certainty that we don’t like each other like that. We’ll be each other’s wingman, but we would never date each other. Second of all, I’ve only known Yugi for a _day_ , I just moved in with his family for this stupid fucking exchange!”

“Oh dear,” she placed a hand on her chest. “I’m so sorry Lorelei, perhaps we can discuss this in the hallway.” 

Chono left no room for arguments as she led Lorelei outside of the classroom, the rest of the students (at least those close to the door) huddled close and listened in, they were dreading about this new girl’s fate and they didn’t want her to get expelled already because their teacher decided to push the wrong buttons.

“Now then, Lorelei, you seem to be pretty hostile back there.” Chono-sensei watched the young girl before her. “I hope this won’t be a problem?”

Lorelei shook her head. “Sorry, I’m just not entirely excited to be here; Jasper and I weren’t expecting to be here in the first place, we just signed up for the exchange for the hell of things, we didn’t think we would be accepted.” She lowered her gaze. “I guess I’m just still sour about having to leave behind all of my friends in the states, having to start a new year in a new town, a new country.”

Chono-sensei placed a hand on her shoulder, Lorelei didn’t even need to look up to know she was given an icy smile that was poorly disguised as a warm and caring one. She’s had enough classes with teachers like her growing up, she knew a fake when she saw one.

“Well, I do hope I speak for everyone when I say that Domino High is the ideal place to be, just give it a few weeks and you’ll eventually feel right at home.” She held out the chapstick. “Here, just so long as you aren’t using this to kiss any boys, I’ll turn my gaze the other way. Your phone however, I expect that it will remain turned off?”

“Yes ma’am.” Lorelei assured.

“Good! Then let’s resume class.” 

Fortunately, the rest of the morning periods went by without any problems. Around lunch time the only people who were in the classroom were Yugi, Lorelei, and Jasper playing a round of pop-up pirate. A few rounds in and they decided to just work on the puzzle, Yugi had only taken the box out of his bag and set it on the desk for them to look over. Jasper was pretty certain that their new friend had misread the hieroglyphs, but he wasn’t going to correct him. He sat back and watched as his friends talked about the puzzle and what their wish were going to be, just before they could even open the box, someone just up and snatched it. Jasper sighed and looked at the person holding the gold box, Katsuya Jonouchi.

“Jonouchi, give it back.” Jasper ordered, clearly annoyed at the other.

“Or what Gaijin, you gonna fight me for it?” The blond held the box above his head. “I’ll even let Mutou here take the first punch!”

“You know I hate fighting!” Yugi cried.

“Listen asshole.” Lorelei stood up. “If you don’t give that box back right now, I swear to the ghost of Jason Todd I will slam your face into the nearest desk!”

“What is he? Some kind of boxer or something?” 

“No, he’s a superhero.” A girl came in and swiped the box from the boy. “Of course, if you want to be formal, he is called Red Hood.”

“Stay out of this Mizaki.” He snapped. “Plus, Gai-ko, you’re a girl; you’d probably break a nail trying to hurt me.” He smirked.

Lorelei sighed and handed her bracelet to Jasper before walking up to the blond, she stared at him for a bit before grabbing his shirt and pulling him down so his face met the desk in a quick swipe. She pulled back and brushed her hands off before looking down at him, silently daring him to challenge her again, just before Jonouchi could say or do anything, a brunette rushed over and took the box from him and held it out to the girl, bowing apologetically.

“I am so sorry for Jonouchi-kun’s behavior! As the class’ honor student, I will take full responsibility of this individual, please let me make it up to you.”

“Fucking kiss ass janitor.” Jonouchi scoffed. “You’re lucky I don’t hit girls anyway.” He muttered as Honda led him out of the classroom.

The room was silent after a few minutes before Yugi turned back to Lorelei, this girl just took down Jonouchi without any problem! He had a bit of fear for the girl, he barely knew anything about her except she was into Kingdom Hearts, and she could slam someone’s head into a desk without so much as a flinch. Shuddering a little at that, he drew the attention of the two teens that were living with him, so much so he unconsciously hid behind Anzu for safety.

“Hey, it’s cool.” Lorelei assured. “Jonouchi was the one who challenged me, I was merely answering his call.”

“Yeah, besides it was good seeing those lessons in action, I still don’t get why your mom wanted us to do self-defense lessons, but they sure paid off.” Jasper leaned back on his desk, getting his lunchbox out and eating some of the leftovers from last night’s welcome dinner.

Lorelei just shrugged and took out her own lunchbox. “You know how our parents are, aside from the obvious answer we had that meth bust near the high school, remember?”

“Augh, don’t remind me.” Jasper groaned. “I’m still wondering how that even happened, our town is mostly old people and antique shops!”

Yugi finally spoke up after hearing all of that; “So you guys aren’t from a dangerous neighborhood?” he was relieved when they shook their heads no. “Just that your parents are overachievers?” another nod confirmed it. “What else did they have you do?”

“It depends; for me, my mom had me join a few clubs.” Lorelei said in between bites of her sandwich. “I won’t give you the whole list but some of the activities I did were; archery, 2-D art, choir, calligraphy, gymnastics, and makeup art.” She pointed at him. “And let me tell you, I can pull off a Glasgow grin on Halloween night.”

“And meanwhile my folks had me in tea ceremony, traditional dance, woodworking, programming, fencing, I also did make up with Lori along with calligraphy, pottery, flower arrangement, and as you can tell we both did JSL.” Jasper smiled. “Oh, and I don’t mean to brag, but I am second best blackjack player in Midwich High.” He finished up his food.

“Second best?” Anzu repeated. “Who’s the first best?”

“That would be Lori, and it would be in your best interest not to challenge her unless you want to kiss your savings goodbye.” Jasper warned.

Lorelei just smiled. “I won’t lie, I did bleed our classmates out of their allowances and it was the best feeling ever. No-one tried reporting me to the principal because it was fair game and most didn’t want to admit they lost to a girl.”

Anzu had a sly grin on her face. “So, if I were to keep Chono-Sensei away from the classroom, think you could bleed a few of our classmates dry?”

“Normally I would say yes, but, seeing as you’re asking and I don’t know you, my dealer’s fee is five dollars a game.” Lorelei said in a stern tone. “And in yen that is…543.30.”

“Don’t tempt her, she’s a beast when it comes to black jack.” Jasper warned as he playfully tossed a balled-up piece of paper at Lorelei, after she flipped him off at that.

Before the lunch hour was over, the group, sans Anzu who left for some sort of class rep thing, were approached by a tall teen - who looked more like a man in his thirties instead of a high school student – approached the two. Already Lorelei and Jasper got in front of Yugi, Lori couldn’t entirely place it but there was something about this student that seemed…off. And she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty again, she made quick work of Jonouchi with the desk, she was certain she could make quick work of this titan if need to.

“Can welp you, Ushio?” Jasper asked, moving to put Yugi more behind him.

Ushio held his hands up in a surrender motion. “Relax, I just want to check on something, Jasper.” He assured. “I’ve been made aware that there’s been some bullying issues in your class?”

Lorelei shook her head. “The only issues in class we’ve had was me blowing up at a teacher, other than that we don’t have any other problems.” She paused. “Unless you meant the commotion from earlier, but we were roughhousing, messing around and reenacting scenes from the Batman series.”

“Yeah, Katsuya and Hiroto wanted to do the Death in the Family scenari and Lori here, was the crowbar.” Jasper tried to explain. “Well not an actual crowbar, we’re not that reckless, she just pressed his head on the desk to make it seem like she was attacking him and I was the role of the Joker.”

Ushio was half intrigued by this. “The crow?” he asked, half believing in the lie.

“Well, in the scene that was just mentioned; the Joker used a crowbar to beat Jason Todd to near death before blowing up the warehouse. And then crazy shit happens with the Lazarus Pit that brought the guy to life as the hero…er kind of hero…Red Hood.” Lorelei explained.

“But that stuff was retconned to after the Flashpoint in the early 2000’s and there was a point where Jason wasn’t actually dead, but we don’t talk about that.” Jasper shook his head.

Ushio just hummed and nodded at the explanation. “Well, for future Batman retellings, let’s try to keep the violence on the downlow, you wouldn’t want to get in trouble for attacking another student.”

“Of course, we’re sorry for causing a scare.” Lorelei bowed in apology. 

“Yes Sir-ee!” Jasper smiled that was all but genuine as they walked out. 

Looking to the window, he saw something shiny get tossed out of said window. He blinked and looked to the pool where it landed. It was a bit too dark to see at the bottom but there was a faint glimmer, he just silently cursed, he would have to wait until tomorrow to dive down where he had better lighting.

 *****  
  
Stopping outside the game shop and heading in, Jasper had to cover his ears as Anzu was screaming. Lorelei winced and had lowered here head, even David Bowie couldn’t block out the screams of a hysteric girl. What the two got out of her meltdown was something about Mr. Mutou being alive, then it dawned on both of them, Yugi had told them that the puzzle was going to be a memento of his grandfather, that boy really needed to learn how to word things. When things had finally settled down, everyone had moved to the living room for some snacks and drinks as well as updating Solomon about how school went for everyone; for Jasper, Yugi, and Anzu, it was a normal day; they had desk inspections today (“Again? Didn’t your teacher just call for one last week?”), for Lorelei it was a little stressful, but she managed (“Let’s avoid blowing up at teachers, okay? It’s going to be okay, give it a few days.”). After the topic of school came the subject of the puzzle, from what was known about it, the team of archaeologists that had retrieved the puzzle from a pharaoh’s tomb all died of mysterious deaths, the last person said with his dying breath “The Shadow Games”. It was eerie to think about, but if Lorelei had to guess, the team probably inhaled some toxic mold or something from the tomb, the pharaoh’s curse was nothing but an urban legend that sprung up since the 19th century after the discovering of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, of course there’s a science report that most of those curses were due to bacteria. She made a memo to scrub her hands vigorously and check with a doctor as soon as possible, who knows where that puzzle came from.

Unlike her rational side, Anzu was more inclined to believe the Shadow Games aspect of it. She even tried to discourage Yugi in continuing the puzzle, but the little game lover was still hellbent in solving it, he was determined to get that wish. Clearly there was definitely some miscommunication going on in this room. 

“Speaking of the wish, what were you thinking of wishing for, Yugi?” Jasper asked, though not one hundred percent on buying it, still it felt that it was a good enough question to steer away from the whole death and murder things.

Yugi blushed and looked down a little. “It’s nothing too big, just…something I’ve wanted for a while.”

“You can tell us, we won’t laugh.” Lorelei assured.

“No, it’s fine…really Lorelei.” 

Lorelei thought for a bit before looking at the puzzle box. “You know, if I were the one to solve this, I would wish that Jasper and I had a group of friends here. I mean, we have you and Anzu, and I’m not saying that’s not enough, but…for the longest time it’s just been the two of us, we never really had anyone to connect with even in the clubs we were in.” she shrugged. “Silly wish, huh?”

“No, not at all!” Yugi insisted.

“Yeah, it’s not silly at all, Lori, actually it’s kind of sweet, big softie. Besides, it’s better than my wish for a hot guy.” He smirked and punched her arm playfully. “But hey, Yugi, if you want, Lori could help you. She’s like a wiz at puzzle solving, I bet she could get the puzzle box from the Hellraiser movies, Cenobites and all.”

Yugi laughed, “Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt much.” He agreed. “Okay! Let’s solve it together!”

 *****  
  
The walk to school wasn’t much of a hassle, by some miracle Jasper had managed to get Lorelei up on time. After a quick breakfast, the trio went to school and started chatting about games; Yugi had learned a lot in this conversation; Lorelei was mostly story based, her favorite titles were those that had immersed you into the story, she preferred up close and heavy battle (“give me a sword or a double bladed lightsaber any day”), and the occasional puzzle games. Apparently, Catherine was one of her favorite titles due to the fact that one had to be a quick thinker when being chased by a monster or to avoid falling into a bottomless pit. Jasper on the other hand was a character creator and a strategist, he took his time to look around the area and carefully picked out his weapons whenever he went into battle (yet when it came to soul calibur, the score was forever tied between him and Lori). He also liked games with beautiful art as well as the traditional 8bit style games (Undertale, though recent, still held a place in his heart, especially with how the soundtrack was). Both of his new housemates had their styles and they were amazing in every way (including the batman incident from yesterday. They really enjoyed their comics too)

“Morning Mutou, Royal, Rowe.” Ushio greeted. “I was wondering when you two would show up, come on, I got somethin’ for ya.” There was something eerily calm about something as he _suggested_ that they come with him.

Lorelei looked up and had her stiff stance, she was ready to throw down if needed – one could ask Jonouchi to confirm this. “Might I ask what this something is?” she asked. 

“It’s a little gift, just something for your troubles yesterday.” Ushio assured. “You were having a rough start yesterday, weren’t you?”

She did snap at Chono-sensei, so maybe he set up a quiet meeting with her? No, that would be asking too much, something was still not right about this whole thing. “I…think we’ll pass.”

“No no, I insist.” Ushio wrapped an arm around Yugi, knowing the small boy wouldn’t fight back. “Let me tell you, it’ll make your day way even better and you’ll have an easier time to enjoy your time here at Domino High.”

Lorelei took a few steps up to him and calmly nudged his arm, silently letting him know to let Yugi go. “If we let you show us this one thing, will you kindly leave us alone?” she asked.

“You have my word, Royal-san.” 

That didn’t really make her feel any better. Silently, Ushio led the trio behind the school – still talking about how it took quite a bit of work to get this done in the short time frame, the way he was hamming it up made it sound like he arranged some sort of welcoming gift, but one look in his eyes, one note of the tone he was using, and add in the unsettling feeling from him was enough to know he was talking about something more…vile in nature. Sadly, this was confirmed when they saw the bodies of Jonouchi and Honda beaten and bloodied and leaning against the wall of the school, horrified the trio ran over to assess the damage. Lorelei was quick in getting some kind of gauze from her bag and tried to clean the blood from their faces and to help with the bloody nose, Yugi was trying to make sure they were okay, and Jasper was repeating the same motions as Lorelei. 

She stood and glared at the titan before her. “What the flying hell, Ushio!?” she demanded.

“I told you, I was going to make it up to you three for the rough start yesterday.” Ushio grinned.

“And we told you that we were just roughhousing! It’s a completely normal thing for friends to do!”

“Yeah! Besides, that didn’t warrant this! There could be some serious internal trouble in there!” Jasper scolded as he got out some zip stitches for some of the larger gashes. “Lori, do you have anymore saline? I forgot to pick some up when I got here and there’ s some debris in this wound that I need to irrigate.”

Lorelei just nodded and pointed to her bag quietly, not taking her eyes off Ushio. “We didn’t ask for your ‘help’ if you can call it that. And we sure as fuck didn’t ask you to beat on our friends!”

“They stole your puzzle box.” Ushio pointed out. “They wouldn’t give it back to you.”

“Lori told you that we were just recreating scenes from the Batman series, Jonouchi was the Robin recovering the stolen goods from the villains.” Yugi spoke up. “They were going to give it back before the bell rang!”

“Oh please, like I would believe that.” Ushio sneered. “I know they’ve been giving you trouble, Mutou, besides, I know you want to punch them. I’ll let you get a hit on them.” He gave Honda a punch in the gut.

Both Lorelei and Yugi shoved him away, yelling in a chorus ‘No!’ Defiant, bravery, possibly fear was in their eyes. But they stood their ground, they weren’t going to let this brute hurt their friends anymore, their act of bravery caused Ushio to laugh and grin viciously at them. If this was the game these two wimps were going to play, so be it.

“Alright, fine, whatever.” He shrugged. “You have questionable tastes in friends, but the bodyguard fee is still in place.”

“What bodyguard fee, we didn’t ask you to do this!” Lorelei shouted.

“Whether or not if you did, the fee is 200,000 yen.” 

Lorelei just felt her jaw hit the ground. “Are you…Are you trying to extort money from us?” her voice faltered a little.

“Like hell we’re going to pay that!” Jasper stood up, the next thing he was met with was a punch to the gut.

 *****  
That night was just hell for both of them, it took a lot of assuring to Solomon that everything was fine and that the roughhousing games got too intense. It wasn’t that they wanted to lie to him, but how do you say ‘a titan tried to extort and threatened us’ to him? They didn’t want to worry him so they lied about roughhousing with their friends a little too much and that everything was fine. The good news was that none of the parties had severe injuries, the bad news was that they weren’t certain what to do about the money situation, granted Lorelei could write a check out but that would immediately get a phone call from her family asking what she needed to write a check out for that much for, every idea that they had was going to raise red flags one way or another. It got to the point where thinking about it got too stressful and led to Lorelei and Yugi working on the puzzle whereas Jasper was in his room sketching out duel monsters. The more stressed Jasper was, the more he strayed further to the more…grotesque monsters. Both parties felt some distance was probably needed in times like this, eventually something would show up and eventually they would have this solved one way or another.

On the side of the puzzle solving duo, the puzzle was actually easier to solve that night, all that was missing was one final piece only to find that it was nowhere to be seen, especially given that they tore apart both Yugi and Lorelei’s room to find it. Yugi was on the verge of tears and Lorelei was trying everything in her power to keep him calm and to rationalize their situation, but she was panicking as well, their night was just finally starting to look well for them only to have it torn away by one small inconvenience. Once things were settled down, they were greeted with some good news; Solomon came in with the missing piece and informed them about a friend that came by with it (and looking like he just came out of the rain, strange that there wasn’t a single storm cloud?). The bad news; after solving the puzzle, it gave a soft glow and duel monsters came out of the puzzle! That was the only thing they could really remember before their world went black.

As he was coming out of his room, Jasper noticed the two acting odd as they walked out. He couldn’t entirely place it, but he was certain that there was some kind of dark aura about them. Concerned and curious at the same time, he grabbed his jacket and started to follow behind them, a part of him was just silently hoped they were sleepwalking and that he could get them home without startling them. As he followed them further and further down the road, he felt his stomach drop as he saw the warehouse before him, specifically, the one that Ushio was known to hang out at. Jasper paled as he looked around, trying to find a way to get in without causing an alarm. Luck seemed to have been on his side when he noticed an open window that was just his height, what he wasn’t expecting to find was the three standing in a circle with a knife and a wad of cash. What the hell was going on?

“The rules of the game are simple,” Yugi started. “We each take turns putting the money on our hands and we use the knife to stab through and taking the bills.” He demonstrated and came out with a few bills on the blade. “Whatever we stab, we keep.”

Jasper just gasped and let his jaw hit the floor at that; Lori hated anything to deal with piercings of any kind: shots, actual body piercing, tattoos, she hated needles to the point where she couldn’t even get her shots without Jasper being in the office with her (or unless she had a book or something to distract her from the pain), and here she is about to stab herself? On a similar note, where did Yugi and Lorelei get those pyramid necklaces? And did Yugi hit a growth spurt of some kind? 

More and more questions started to form as he watched the game unfold, Lorelei and Yugi were keeping a clear-head as they stabbed the money, Ushio however he was just slamming the knife further and further in. It got to the final round and Ushio’s hand was twitching violently, he was going to stab not only the money but also through his own hand. Jasper just supposed that this was it, the game was over…yeah right. He knew that brute of a bully, he was going to cheat.

Jasper had seen enough as he was about to climb through the window, he saw Ushio grab the knife and lunging at Lorelei just as he climbed down. 

“Lori, Yugi! Watch out!” He cried out, but Lorelei dodged it as an eye symbol appeared on hers and Yugi’s foreheads. It was Lorelei that spoke up first. 

“Figured, you couldn’t play by the rules Ushio-kun.” She started out softly. “But alas, you have cheated and were blinded by your greed, for that, this is your punishment. Penalty Game! Greed, the Illusion of Avarice!” She yelled out; voice deeper than usual as the room filled with light.

*  
School the next day was weird. Jasper walked with the two to school and watched the scene before him. Ushio was rolling around in leaves and garbage, babbling about how he was rich and all the money in the world was his and his alone. He looked down to Lorelei and watched as she yawned tiredly, he tried asking her if she was fine but that was met with some confusion. All she remembered was passing out in Yugi’s room after solving the puzzle, that and seeing duel monsters in his room but she and Yugi just passed it off as a stress related dream.

“So, you don’t remember walking out of the house and playing a knife game with money and Ushio trying to stab you.” Jasper walked in the building with the two. “Like it was bonkers, also, where’d you get those?” he asked pointing to the now two puzzles around their necks.

Yugi looked down and shrugged. “We solved the puzzle and it just split in two, but that was before the duel monsters dream.” He muttered.

“Great, ancient and cursed jewelry.” Jasper sighed. “Hand them over, let me do a cleansing on them.”

Lorelei just batted his hand away. “We’re not cursed Jasper.” She insisted as she walked on, turning the corner she ran into a familiar blond. “Hey!”

“Sheesh, sorry. Not my fault you’re hard to see.” Jonouchi crossed his arms. “You’re don’t really stick out as much…uh…how’s your face?”

“Its fine, Jonouchi.” Jasper was clearly not in the mood to deal with the apparent bully.

“Stand down, I’m not looking for a fight.” Jonouchi held his hand up. “Listen um…you guys, you guys are something. Treating a gold box like a treasure and stuff, I mean well…guess it’s not that weird. I have a treasure of my own if you wanna see it.”

“What kind of treasure?” Yugi asked.

“Heh, first you gotta answer my riddle; it’s something you can show but can’t see.” He grinned a little.

“Kindness?” Jasper guessed; he got a look from Lorelei. “What? I’d like to see you come up with something better.”

Yugi thought for a bit and shook his head, Jonouchi just laughed and ruffled his hair, encouraging him to guess, he could get this. After a few more minutes, his amethyst eyes lit up and his smile grew.

“Friendship!” Yugi answered. 

“Bingo!” Jonouchi smiled. “Uh listen, you guys are something else. I mean, despite everything you still called us friends and um…yeah thanks. Uh I’ll see you guys in class.” He turned and dashed off.

Lorelei laughed as she picked up a stray shoe. “HEY KATSU! YOU FORGOT SOMETHING!” She chased after him. “KATSUYA GET BACK HERE AND TAKE YOUR SMELLY SHOE BACK!”

School life definitely had gotten better for the group, and for Jasper and Lorelei their little circle had just branched out.


	2. Lying Eyes and the Poison Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look, my readers fell into another wormhole where I updated an existing chapter >.>

Another morning, another day at school. It’s been a few days since the events of Ushio’s descent into madness, and since then school definitely got easier; maybe it was because she and Jasper had made new friends – a bit unlikely, but they still had become good friends with Yugi, Anzu, and Katsuya and to be honest, Lorelei wouldn’t have it any other way. Even after today, she was walking to school with three of her friends and talking about whatever came to mind at the moment; today, Katsuya was talking to Yugi about some porn tape. The down side? The good parts were pixelated out, she had her sinking suspicion that he got it from some questionable joint, she couldn’t help but to shake her head.

“Katsuya, don’t waste your money on shady tapes, pirate that shit like a responsible human being!” Lorelei scolded

“Whoa, Lori?” Yugi stared at her in horror. “Lori…please tell me you don’t…that’s illegal!”

“Relax, Yugi.” Jasper assured. “Lori’s not a criminal, besides we only pirated one thing and that was the Game of Thrones series. We made the mistake of buying the first season on DVD and we weren’t going to make that same mistake again.”

“The fact remains, just pirate your porn like a normal human.” Lorelei shook her head.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t be talking about doing stuff like that in front of a studio van?” Katsuya pointed to the van in question.

Another instance on where she should have noticed that off the bat. There was a sense of foreboding welling inside her, she couldn’t place it but she felt like she’s heard of the station that the van belonged to; ZTV, she’s heard of it but she couldn’t entirely be sure but one thing is for certain; one look at Jasper confirmed it all, he was just as tensed as she was. Their tensed reaction went ignored as Jonouchi believed that a movie star or something was attending their school and even tried getting Yugi to look through the tinted windows to see if they had anything to work with. That sinking feeling in her stomach was growing by the second, but she couldn’t really say anything, not until she had her facts together.

Fortunately, class went by smooth. Chono-sensei was in a good mood today, probably a date went that was successful (though who the hell would want to date her? She wears a shit ton of makeup that would make Harley Quinn jealous.) still, when free time came, Lorelei was up to her lunch time tradition; bleeding her classmates in a round of blackjack. Jasper was to the side with Anzu and pointing out the game like a tour guide (“And right in front of you, you’ll see Lorelei murdering her classmates on the spot.”), he enjoyed her playing and he also had a good view of the classroom. Like Lorelei, he was on edge because of the van out front, he was certain about it but ZTV was the heated discussion on the news with how questionable their methods were on getting a story out. One method was sending in a paid rat to lure someone to the filming site and sadly he was witnessing that aspect first hand. Jasper watched as some student was telling Yugi about how a studio girl wanted to meet him, that was all that he needed to follow, and his reasoning was simple ‘I’m your wingman, your bodyguard, and your friend. I can’t let you do this alone’. Yugi bought it and he could get close to intervene should he need to. 

He hated being right.

Jasper waited until recess when the ‘meeting’ was supposed to take place, glad that he wasn’t as noticeable as some of the other students as best as he could, noticing Katsuya doing the same. It seemed that both had their suspicions about something going horribly wrong. Once more, he hated being right, the ‘student’ from earlier that drew Yugi out just outright sucker-punched him and revealed the whole meeting to be a lie. Having seen enough, the two went out and ganged up on the other, Katsuya showing little to no mercy and Jasper checking on Yugi. Fortunately, there were only going to be some bruising and nothing too serious, that was a huge relief for both friends, as for the twerp playing the role of the bully, well…another questionable move by ZTV. Jasper could smell a lawsuit coming a mile away if he could convince Sugoroku to file one, that shouldn’t be too hard.

“You son of a bitch.” Katsuya hissed at the director. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t paint the pavement with your blood, right now!” He held the man by the collar of his shirt.

“Katsuya, it isn’t worth it, besides there’s probably a camera showing everything. If we can find it we can get it to the police.” Jasper pleaded as he remembered the last time someone caused harm to Yugi. ‘I really don’t know if I want to see tall, dark, and scary Yugi again if we don’t have to.’ He shuddered and helped Yugi up. “Hey, it’s okay Yugi, we’re here for you.”

The director just laughed. “Not in this area of the school there ain’t, the only camera here is mine.” He pointed to the camera. “And unless you want me to turn in a footage of you assaulting a director?” 

Katsuya growled and let the man go, big mistake. The last thing either Jasper or Katusya knew was them getting the holy hell beaten out of them.

 *****  
“I swear you get into more scraps than me.” Lorelei was bandaging up both boys. “And I took gold mostly when it came to Judo.”

“Save it Red Hood.” Katsuya groaned. “We were trying to help Yugi because of that shithead director.”

“Is that going to be my name now?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Now is not the time you two, we need to do something or Yugi’s going to end up in a puddle.” Jasper attempted to stand up, but thanks to a bruised rib he had to sit back down. “Damn ZTV, I should have known they were up to no good the second we saw that van!” he punched the wall in clear anger.

Lorelei shook her head. “Jasper, we both know that stupid studio is questionable, but diving in headfirst without-” before she could finish, she went still. Her puzzle was glowing and she fell into a dazed look, she found herself standing in the shadows and watching as images flashed by; Yugi and the director were standing face to face and a die was being thrown. That was all she could see before she was brought back down to earth by Katsuya shaking her shoulder.

“Earth to Robin, are you there?” Katsuya called.

She pulled from him. “What just happened?”

“You just kind of zoned out, like after we went on a Bake-Off binge and tried to make all of cake week in your mom’s kitchen for the bake sale.” Jasper looked away slightly. “And after we ate the leftovers and the rejects, I never want to see a Black Forest cake ever again.”

“I have so many questions and not enough answers.” Katsuya shook her head. “Anyway, what happened to make you zone out?”

“You mean you didn’t see it?” She asked. “There was flashes of images and one was of Yugi standing with the director and they were playing a dice game?”

“Okay Lori, now you’re talking weird. We didn’t see anything like that.” Jasper got up and went over to her, pressing his hand on her forehead. “You’re not running a fever, maybe you’re just tired or something? Or maybe the reek from Katsuya’s shoe is finally hitting you like one of those delayed bombs?” That earned a pillow tossed at his head and a small laugh.

Katsuya huffed. “Minus the shoe comment, Jasper might be right. I mean, you had a long day of gambling and bleeding our classmates dry, maybe you’ve been around cards and dice for too long that your brain is just being weird. You know what you need? You need a nice, fun time in the kitchen with Jasper, and teach me how to make your crazy cakes. Sound good?”

It was a good idea; she wasn’t going to lie. With a small laugh, Lorelei and the two boys went to the kitchen to start teaching Katsuya how to bake treats from around the world, starting off with a custard tart. Jasper was in charge of guiding him through the pastry process whereas Lori was helping him make the custard portion. Days like this in the kitchen did help clear her mind a lot when Jasper was around, it helped calm her and helped her think things through without stressing out. She knew what she saw, Yugi and that director were playing some kind of dice game but that was it, she wasn’t certain what prompted it nor what the context of the situation was. Then again, she couldn’t really talk, she did have some kind of a blackout sometime after she and Yugi completed the puzzle and by some chance there were two now. That alone she couldn’t figure out what that was entirely, maybe she was just overthinking, maybe Katsuya was right; she’s had a long day and the events of that day just got to her is all. Things were starting to settle down until the bell to the door rang, all three were turned to the door and saw Yugi in the doorway, a sigh of relief emitted from them. He was okay, thank the heavens!

“Yugi! Hey you’re just in time.” Lorelei smiled. “We’re making custard tarts, if you want to join us?”

Yugi just looked up and smiled at her, her own smile fell a little. There was something about Yugi that seemed a little…off. No, she was not going to overthink this, there was nothing wrong with Yugi. He walked over and looked over the recipe card that Jasper gave him – it was for the key lime dome that was going to go with the tart, he just stared at the card blankly, even turning it a few times to try and decipher the writing on them. Concerned, Jasper walked up and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Yugi? Are you okay?” He asked.

Yugi blinked and looked up at him before smiling. “I’m fine, Jasper!” he replied. 

“Long day?” Lorelei asked.

“I guess so, I don’t even remember walking in here.” He looked down.

The three looked at each other before smiling back to Yugi, Lorelei walked him to his room so he could get a little bit of rest before he could enjoy the dessert night. Still, she was a little worried about the whole ordeal, she wanted to listen to Katsuya about how it was nothing and she was just tired as well, but something inside her was nagging at her that this wasn’t as simple as just a tired mind. She finally made up her mind, she was going to keep this to herself and try to work everything else out as time goes on, at least until she found the reason for this weird vision.

*****

“Remind me again, why you dragged us along?” Lorelei asked, looking around the shady neighborhood. 

She wasn’t sure how Katsuya had done it, but he did; he convinced Yugi, Lorelei, and Hiroto into going shopping with him and into one of the shadiest of places. In all honesty, if she had known this was where Katsuya was going to be dragging them to, she would have made more of an effort to talk Jasper into coming along with her. She just shuddered and pulled her jacket close to her body, she was going to kick Katsuya’s ass if this shopping trip turned out to be another ploy to get shady porn tapes. While it was true that she had her self-defense to help out in situations like this, she was actually more concerned with the recent blackouts she had been having. The last thing she needed was to be hit with one in a place like this.

The worry turned into…actually no, it hadn’t changed. The shop they were inside was called the Junky Scorpion; it looked like a cheap secondhand shop. Shoes and other small novelties around, there was an unnerving feeling in her chest just by looking around and the silent conversation she had with Yugi confirmed it. There was something about this shop that neither of the two could place. Her nervousness turned into annoyance when she saw what Katsuya was after; a set of shoes. He dragged them all the way to the shady side of town just for a pair of shoes.

“Not just any shoes.” Katsuya held them close. “Only the latest in comfort style; the Air Muscles!” 

“Katsuya, take it from your American Sweetheart…those shoes aren’t worth jack shit.” She scoffed. “I know they’re ‘popular’ but just wait, in another few months the company is going to come out with a ‘more comfortable’ and ‘sleeker’ design. I know those wolves, and they’re not worth your yen.”  
  
“Good, then he won’t have any trouble putting them back onto the shelf and walking out.” A new voice rang out.

The group turned and saw a strange man before them and to Lorelei, he looked like the definition of the word hipster. Short goatee, long blond hair, sunglasses indoors, a stupid hat, and oh god it was just painful to look at. She took the side and held her head as Katsuya kept begging for the chance to buy them despite the protests from her and the others. The owner offered the chance of a test to see if Katsuya was worthy of the shoes; simply stick his foot into the shoe that has a deadly scorpion inside it. Dear Lord. The test was passed, Katsuya paid (a little on the cheap side than what the value is on retail), and an ominous warning about ‘Muscle hunters.’ 

That warning seemed to have quite the timing, it wasn’t even ten minutes of them walking out of the store and walking a few blocks before they were attacked. It wasn’t even a fair fight; Yugi got punched, Katsuya was held in place by a tire, Hiroto was hit with a wrench, and Lorelei only got one hit in – she stabbed the wrench holding thug in the arm with a concealed nail filer (Never underestimate what you can use as a weapon, Kit Kat). Shoes were taken and oh, it was time for a little revenge. Lorelei watched as her three boys left, and that was the last thing she saw before her world went dark. If the boys had stayed around, they would have seen the subtle changes of her eyes being turned from her gentle emerald color to a sharp acidic look.

Needless to say, when the three returned to the shop, Jasper pissed off that they didn’t check to see if Lorelei was still with them. And boy, did they get quite the earful; then again, they did go off and followed the creeps for an interrogation and when they found out the Junky Scorpion shop owner was the one who paid those goons to steal merchandise off of the target so they can resell again. Clever, but shady, that was the kind of shit one would find in the business of the black market.

“So help me, if she gets hurts.” Jasper warned. “I will do to you what the Walrider did to Walker in Outlast!” 

“Listen, Jasper…I promise you that Lorelei is fine, she stabbed someone with a nail file after all.” Hiroto tried.

“That doesn’t mean it’s okay for her to be walking around in the shady part of town, jack ass!”

Somewhere in the middle of his ranting, Jasper noticed Yugi spacing out; almost in a trance-like gaze…similar to when Lorelei was back a few days ago when ZTV was outside their school, his puzzle was glowing. He paused and laid a hand on Yugi’s shoulder, gently shaking him back to reality.

“Hey, Yugi…Are you still with us?” he asked softly.

Yugi looked up at him. “Lori’s with the shop owner…the scorpion is inside the shoe for real and she’s putting her hand in it!”

“Okay, back up…what scorpion, what are you talking about?”

“I don’t know what’s going on myself, but the guy put the scorpion into the shoe and she poured yen into it, they’re taking turns sticking their hand in and pulling the coins out.” Yugi explained. 

“Okay, that’s fucked up.” Hiroto shuddered. “Why would Lori put herself in danger like that!”

The argument started back up again and the three went back and forth about the game that was going on as well as whether or not that it would be a bright idea to head back to the shop and stop the game from continuing, the argument was rather intense and it got to the point where they were caught up in what was being said that they failed to notice their friend walking in with the shoes in her hands.

“Katsuya.” She called.

The four boys turned and Jasper pounced, holding her close and rubbing her back as he expressed how worried he was, when he pulled back he looked her over…there was a bit of an eerie look to her, and the shoes she was holding there was a hole in the sole of one of them.

“Lorelei, what happened?” he asked.

She blinked and looked up at him. “I…honestly don’t know…” she looked at the shoes. “I don’t really know how I got back here.”

“Well, you’re safe now…uh Katsuya recovered your nail file and it’s in the bathroom ready to be washed up.”

“Thanks Kit Kat.” She held out the shoes to him. “I believe these are yours?”

That got Katsuya to pounce and hold her close, giving her his eternal gratitude and considering the hole to be a battle scar. She just smiled and made her way to the bathroom to wash off the blood from the file, she wasn’t sure what the hell had happened; one minute she was about to follow her boys to where those goons headed off, her world went dark, and when she came to…she was back in the game shop. Did this happen to Yugi? What the hell was going on? No…she had to keep a level head. There was a reasonable explanation for this, there was always an answer to something. The Walrider was nothing but nano-bots for example, and these blackouts…are something. There was something, and she would figure it out. Right?

  
  



	3. Face of Truth & Digital Pet Duel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeeeahh so for the Season 0 of things, my partner in crime and I are just nitpicking our favorite shadow games
> 
> So, we headcanon that the digital pets can be "revived" if you know what you're doing with codes and such. And we also headcanon that weird monster with the black star to be a corrupt data. So...yeah.

_Dear Mom and Mrs. Rowe,_   
_Greetings from Domino! I’m certain you’re eager to hear everything that’s been happening here and how we’ve been doing. First off; everything at the Mutou residence has been going swimmingly, Jasper and I work part time with Yugi downstairs and selling games. When we’re not working, we’re playing games (Which, by the way, Yugi and I are tied on the scoreboard, he’s a master gamer too!) School is a nightmare; you already know about our teacher Ms. Chono, but other than her we had this kid who claimed to be psychic only to turn out to be a major creep. According to Anzu, he just pressed chloroform to her and before she passed out Yugi came to save the day! (I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if he hadn’t shown up). Then there was this jerk, Seto Kaiba, you might remember him from the world tournament back in Vegas, turns out he’s been in our class for a while, weird huh? Well he’s…I don’t want to say he’s bad, but he did steal a card (we got it back) and okay he is kind of a dick. The weird thing though is that these two events had Yugi involved and when asked about it, he says he doesn’t remember._

_He’s been having blackouts apparently, and frankly…I can’t really blame him, I’ve been having issues too. See, there’s been times I’ve had my own blackouts, the only ones I remember are was this time at a burger restaurant an escaped convict came and held everyone at gun point the only thing I remember was being forced to deliver vodka and cigarettes to the creep before blacking out (I think I fainted? I don’t know) what I do know is according to eye-witnesses the guy lit himself on fire. Then there was this gang that forced our friend Katsuya into their midst, Jasper and I tracked them down and…well I’m certain Jasper included this in his letter to our dads but, apparently, I tricked the thugs into electrocuting themselves?_

_The final incident was during our school festival preparations. Despite having the lot for our carnival games, these seniors threw us out and destroyed everything with a grill. We’re not sure what happened but, apparently the head honcho who called the order of the games’ destruction was found with severe burns and is in critical condition with no chance of recovery. Yugi and I only remember being in the infirmary when that happened._

_I’m not telling you this because I want you to pull us out but…I need advice, I’ve been to the doctors and there’s nothing wrong with me health wise. I don’t know what else to do in this state, Mr. Mutou’s setting up a movie night for us, classic horror night (he’s a Vincent Price fan too!) is exactly what we need. I’ll write to you soon._

_Love Lori_

Normally, she wouldn’t be this worried entirely. There was always an explanation to things, she always tried to find the answer to the unknown (Of course, when it came to the unknown like Atlantis, she stood by the belief that there really is an ancient city underwater. Hey, she could have her magical reasonings too). But with the events that had been happening since the completion of the Millennium Puzzle, she couldn’t even figure out what was going on. Doctor visits showed that there was nothing wrong with her and she didn’t want to keep going for some evaluation over something that can’t be explained, she couldn’t burden Mr. Mutou with that.

Jasper on the other hand, was more worried for his best friend. He was looking at the puzzle that hung around her neck as he studied for their next history test, clearly dreading it. He wrote his letter to their fathers and told them more about what was going on, about the gang that he helped Lori and Yugi take down and more about the other Kaiba incident (where the hell did that little runt Mokuba get a fucking gun in the first place?) He put on a smile when Lori sealed the envelope and went to mail it out, she was doing fine right now and that was the important thing to him. But he was still going to keep his eye on her, the last thing he needed was her going into a trance state during a Vincent Price marathon and having to go track her down. The moment she returned to the living room, he walked up and held her hand – a small way to know if she was awake or not, fortunately, she was, and she smiled at him before giving a teasing nudge to him before going to the blanket fort that Yugi had made for the Vincent Price marathon. For once, the evening went smooth for everyone. As for the next day in school, it was…questionable to say the least; the history exam had mixed reactions, it was a half-pass or half-fail in that situation. Aside from that, things at Domino high had seemed normal enough with Lori playing cards against the students (and winning), Jasper and Anzu talking about school and student council stuff (even though he wasn’t on the board, he did have some experience that Anzu was relieved to hear and go to for advice), and Yugi would be playing some new game or another with Katsuya. After school, it was another story all together.

“I was playing on the app store and I think I found a game you might like, Lori.” Yugi smiled. “You told me how much you loved Alice Madness Returns so, I bought you Alice’s Warped Wonderland. It’s a visual novel and it has everything you love about the former.”

“Oh Yugi, please tell me you didn’t buy the full game for me.” Lori sighed. “You know how I feel about you spending money on me.”

Yugi fell silent and thought for a bit. “Happy birthday?” he tried.

“Her…Birthday isn’t until October, Yugi.” Jasper said hesitantly. “But…if Lori doesn’t want it, I can finally claim her tablet as mine and play it!”

Lorelei smacked his arm lightly. “You stay the hell away from my tablet.” She scolded. “I’ll give it a try tonight and give the final verdict.” She promised. “However right now, I need to avenge my sister Cassandra because a certain someone keeps destroying her armor before throwing her out of the ring.” 

Jasper laughed and patted Yugi’s back. “You shouldn’t have gone after her, Yugi, you did this to yourself.”

“Oy! Yugi, Jasper, Red Hood!” Katsuya called. The three looked over and saw him walking over with Hiroto trailing behind. “Glad I caught ya, so listen…I have something to ask of you, and you’re totally free to decline this request if you want to.”

“Jono this is a bad idea!” Hiroto groaned. “You know Lori has it in for us!”

“No, she doesn’t.” Katsuya assured. “We cleared everything up, she’s good.”

“And Yugi? He probably still holds a grudge against me…”

“Look whatever happened between you guys is in the past.” Jasper spoke up. “Lori might be more prone to holding grudges.” He dodged a swipe. “But I promise you, we’ll help you guys out. Now what’s wrong?”

Katsuya smiled. “Well, Hiro here is in love.” He started out, ignoring his friend’s anguished cry. “And the lucky girl is Miho Nosaka, you know? The student librarian, the girl with the yellow ribbon in her hair? Problem is that lover boy here can’t say a single sentence around her and that’s why we’re here; Yugi, you own a game shop, you think you have something that Hiroto can use to woo Nosaka-chan?”

That was the conversation that started it all. That one conversation that lead to the game shop where a blank puzzle was sold to Hiroto Honda, and that very same puzzle that had Yugi scratching his head over (Of course the trio were begged to write the love letter, why wouldn’t they?). Still regardless of the circumstances, they were determined in getting the love note written and wrapped up in a lovely wrapping paper, they already had an ending ‘All I want is you, Love Hiroto Honda’ and in the end, they just used Lorelei’s playlist and took lines from existing songs for the letter with Jasper editing like crazy and Yugi transcribing the final product onto the puzzle; combined the letter read:

_Ribbon,_   
_If I could find a way to open up my heart, we’d be together, we’d not be apart_   
_I love you like I love the sun._   
_So put your hand in mine and together we’ll climb as high as the highest star_   
_After all, I don’t want fashion, don’t wanna be cool and when it all comes down_   
_All I want is you_   
_-Love Hiroto Honda_

They just inwardly died inside; this was the best they could come up with due to Lori’s playlist. But they thought it sounded good enough to work with at least. Deciding to call it good, they just broke the puzzle up and wrapped it nicely and adding a pastel yellow ribbon to complete the look for school tomorrow.

*****

School the next day was actually humorous to the group. Hiroto was a blushing mess before class had started, the plan was simple; slide the package into Miho’s desk and wait for her to open it. The only downside was that she hadn’t noticed it at all, and that’s what made it so entertaining; Hiroto would glance over to see if she’s noticed it only to turn away when she either turn to look at him or just minding her own business. Lorelei, Jasper, Yugi, and Katsuya couldn’t help but snicker at their friend’s flustered face. Still, despite all of that, they were still really proud of themselves for the note they had created through what limited songs from Lorelei’s playlist they had (hey, it wasn’t her fault her definition of a love song was different than theirs) and they all credited it to Hiroto so that he had a chance.

At least, that was the wishful part. The bell rang and Chono-sensei had entered the room, wearing excessive amount of makeup (seriously, Harley Quinn would be jealous of her by now) and…her uniform was a bit more form fitting than Lorelei had remembered. Then it dawned on her, Chono had a date last night and judging by that sickening-sweet smile on her face, it went sour and now she was going to take it out on all of them with another inspection. Now that she thought about it, there was a pattern going on here; Chono would be normal and not bother them for a few weeks, then she’d be in a cheerful mood as she had a date, then she would come back with that smile of hers and torture the students because her date found out she was nothing but a horrible person (She actually felt sorry for the poor guy who does end up marrying her, that is if she could hold a man first.) Another day of desk and bag inspection and another day of this tyrant giving her hell because of the chapstick flavor of the day (today was sprite, Lori loved that drink more than life itself), her sketchbook/scrapbook of various dresses and ensembles from her favorite catalog store or just something she found aesthetically pleasing (Jasper agreed to make whatever outfit she wanted and in return she would pay him back in whatever he wanted – usually another piece of art.) that scrapbook was one of Chono’s favorite things to grab, she’d flip to a random page and show the class the outfit Lorelei had her eye on and making snide comments like ‘This seemed a bit too grown-up for students’ or ‘Aren’t we a little old for fairytales?’ there were days where Lori wished she could throw her out of the window.

But the final straw for her and for her small group of friends was when Chono honed in on the gift Miho had finally found. Taking it and opening it to find a puzzle.

“Children these days and their games.” Chono chuckled. “Easily caught up in silly things like this.” Her smile grew as she saw the messages appear. “Oh? How curious, when you put the puzzle together a message appears; _‘Ribbon, If I could find a way to open up my heart, we’d be together, we’d not be apart. I love you like I love the sun. So put your hand in mine and together we’ll climb as high as the highest star. After all, I don’t want fashion, don’t wanna be cool and when it all comes down, All I want is you’_ ” It was humiliating for Miho and for the small group of friends. Humiliating and hurtful, just the way Chono liked it (It wouldn’t be too hard to pin her fall as an accident would it?)

“Now then, we all know the school rules and dating.” Chono smiled. “So whoever wrote this, please stand up and I might go easy on you.”

Enough was enough. Yugi stood up and cried out that he wrote the love note, attention turned to him. Nope, she wasn’t going to let him take the fall; Lorelei stood up shortly after.

“Yes, but I gave him the means to write it!” she cried. “It was my music and the lyrics that brought the love letter to life!”

“You may have provided the music, and Yugi may have wrote it.” Jasper was standing. “But I was the editor of the note, so the note is just as mine as theirs.”

“And the one who put the box in Nosaka’s desk was me.” Katsuya was standing. “All four of us are equally responsible.”

They weren’t just going to let Hiroto take the fall, even if Miho hated the four, he may still have a chance. The smile shot to him was enough for him to stand up and confess that the letter was his idea, that it was his heart and feelings that bought the puzzle in the first place. Still, Chono wasn’t entirely amused, she had their confessions what more did she need? No, wait, they already knew what she needed. All that rage, all that hurt, all that…everything. Lorelei and Yugi weren’t sure what happened but according to eye-witness reports; as Chono was finishing up the puzzle, her face chipped off and…well it was best not to describe her face to them. It was that grotesque. Fortunately, that stunt had ended class for the day.

With school finally over, the gang made their way to the game shop as it had been a stressful day for them and they decided to blow off steam by playing the new game that Yugi had bought for her. So far, they were just waiting on the loading screen when Mr. Mutou came in with a guest behind him, saying there was a girl who wanted to see them. To their surprise, Miho was there holding the puzzle close to her.

“She…she left this on the desk.” She looked down. “Did you five really work on it together?”

“Yeah.” Lorelei nodded. “Well, to an extent; Yugi, Jasper, Katsuya and I, we offered to help Hiroto. He wanted to confess his feelings to you but he didn’t know what to say so…we went through my music list and picked out lyrics we thought would reflect those feelings for him.”

She blushed and smiled. “It’s actually pretty sweet. Maybe I could get a copy of that playlist?”

“Sure.” She got up. “Yugi, Jasper, Katsuya, you’re coming with me; we’ve nearly tore the bedroom apart trying to work on that note and you’re helping me find my ipod.” She left no room for arguments. (The room was fine, they just wanted to give Hiroto and Miho some space to talk things out).

Once they were alone, Miho’s smile fell and she bowed to Hiroto in apology. “Honda-kun, I’m sorry…I’m really touched by your letter, I really am, but…I’d think I’d like it more if we were just friends.”

Crushed, but a smile formed. “Hey, that’s fine…I mean, Lori could use another girl to hang out with.” He covered. “And it’d be nice to have you around more?”

She giggled a little. “No hard feelings?”

“None, I mean…there’s a chance friendship could bloom but until then I am perfectly fine with just being friends.”

She pointed at his face. “Your eyes are watering.”

He quickly wiped them. “Tears of happiness, I was afraid you were going to hate us after…that”

“I wouldn’t hate you for something our awful teacher did. She hurt a lot of people just because she can.” Miho bit her lip. “I’m just glad she’s gone now, I don’t think she’s going to show up to class again, not that I’m complaining.”

“You and me both.” He turned to the hall. “And you four can come back to the living room now; Miho-chan and I kissed and made up.”

Slowly they came back and sat at the table where the tablet laid. Jasper picked it up and smiled a little at the girl, “We were going to play a new game if you want to join us? I have to warn you, it looks like a horror game?”

Miho nodded and sat between him and Hiroto. “I don’t mind, I…actually like horror.” She blushed. “The Grudge is my favorite by the way. It’s really scary and I just can’t get enough of it!”

“I don’t care much for horror.” Yugi admitted. “I mean, I like some depending on what it is, but as a whole it’s a no go for me.”

“Well we’re going to see how this game holds up.” Lorelei chimed. “It’s time to start Alice’s Warped Wonderland.”

 *****  
Another week, another crazy adventure; digital pets were blowing up the school! Well, not literally, but it wasn’t uncommon to see a student with the cute little keychain and tending to their little pets, even Jasper got caught up in the craze and he was sitting with the others as he fed his little bat avatar, Lorelei was beside him with a little snake avatar that she just named Malli, short for Mallika after her favorite actress (in all honesty, Jasper lost count of the number of times he was forced to watch Hisss and Time Raiders with her. While he enjoyed them, he didn’t really appreciate having his friend pull him to the pillow fort to watch them time and time again).

“Why do I have a feeling we’re going to end up with another life-threatening thing again? Because that’s what always happens when we do some new fad.” Jasper shook his head. “Not that I’m complaining, Row is a cutie after all.” 

“Jasper, we haven’t been in a life-threatening situation.” Lorelei scoffed. “Isn’t that right, Malli? Yes, we haven’t been in any danger.” She cooed.

“Lori, I saw you play a knife game with Yugi and Ushio!” 

Yugi looked over. “We did what?”

“You heard me!” 

“Okay, that was the one time! Even then, it doesn’t count if we don’t remember!” Lorelei shot back.

“The diner where the guy had a gun to your face?” Jasper pointed out. “Or where Yugi played a deadly game of ice hockey with chemicals in a frozen block of ice?”

She waved her hand. “We haven’t had anything like that in a month. Going back to our pets, did you know you can transfer data to one another?” she pointed to the little data ports on their game. “For example, if I hook up with you, little Malli can gain data from Row and vice versa.”

“That sounds great!” Katsuya grinned. “Jasper, mate with me!”

“Okay first; that still doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. Second; Katsuya, if we’re going to mate, you better take me out on a date and show me you’re committed, I don’t do one-night stands.”

Silence descended upon the group before Katsuya shrugged. “Alright, what time do you want me to pick you up and take you to 50’s Prime Time?”

“W-what?” Jasper sputtered out as he looked at the other while blushing.

With the conversation laid to rest, the group began sharing pet data with one another, everyone was cooing about how the pets were getting along and giggling at their interactions. However, when it came to Katsuya and Yugi’s moment together; Jou kicked U2 at the beginning before the two started to become friends, it came around full circle when Malli slapped Jou before they became friends. Jasper was laughing at the end results, those three pets just mimicked how they all became friends in real life, he supposed this time the saying that Art imitates Life was true. Even more so when U2 started to freak out for whatever reason; well no, that was a lie…Kujirada had shown up, he was such a creep if you asked Jasper, he tended to take gaming a little too far and that was putting it nicely. Sure enough, he started bragging about how amazing his pet was because it was one of the ‘hidden characters’, Jasper wasn’t too impressed and neither was Lorelei. The two had been in the scene long enough to know damn well that this student probably hacked the little keychain toys, and it was a cheap move in order to keep their pet alive longer than the average pet.

Nothing eventful happened that night, but the next day at school was different. Some students were reporting that their pets and data were completely erased, there was a line by Jasper’s desk for him to see if he couldn’t repair them – depending on the item, depended on the price he would give. For these little guys, it was for free. He was just as confused as anyone else, but managed to get things back up and running; granted with an updated avatar of a previous pet, but he got them up and running again. 

“That was like the fifteenth case this morning.” Lorelei pointed out. “And Malli is still freaking out along with U2.” She handed the two games to him. “Any idea what’s going on?”

“My guess is the data deletion is due to a virus.” Jasper leaned back and looked over Malli, the little pet was still shaking and jumping in fear. “Little guy seems to be doing fine code wise, I think the pets can sense if the corrupt data is nearby.” He looked up at a pissed off Anzu. “Let me guess, your pet got deleted too?”

“Not just that, that freak Kujirada had his pet eat mine!” she handed her game to him. “Lori, as my dear friend…could you beat his ass for me. With a crowbar!”

Jasper narrowed his eyes and started to work. “You know what, I have a better idea. Lori, with your permission I’d like to do something to Malli.”

“Go right ahead, do whatever you want…within reasons!”

Oh, Kujirada was going to regret using hacks and Jasper was going to make sure of it. He started to work and not only did he get Peachy back for Anzu, he also gave Malli a little gift to take care of that rotten data that Kujirada had. Fortunately, he was too stupid and took the bait without a second thought; he watched as the creature inside try to ‘eat’ Malli only for the little snake turn into a giant cobra and just mutilate the monster before returning back to its home. Jasper made sure to slide in an extra digital treat to it…of course, the giant cobra trait wasn’t really the gift he programmed for it, he just wanted bigger fangs and that was it. He wasn’t certain where the cobra aspect came from but, he wasn’t going to complain, the creep shrugged it off and left the room and the other pets weren’t in danger of any more random deletion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Songs Used:  
> Girl You Shine (Aaron Carter)  
> Vampire Heart (HIM)  
> Every Woman in the World (Air Supply)  
> All I want is You (Bryan Adams)


	4. Man from Egypt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I should tell you this right now ladies and gentlemen and nonbinaries:
> 
> There's going to be two encounters with Shadi. The first one from season 0 will be Lorelei vs. Shadi. The second encounter will be Yugi vs. Shadi in Duelist Kingdom.
> 
> Same will happen with the Spirit of the Ring: One will be from Monster World and the other will be from Duelist Kingdom. Trust the panda, we are master planners.
> 
> Daffodil: Respect, Rebirth, Eternal Life, New Beginnings, Regard, Unrequited Love, You’re the Only Love, The Sun is Always Shining when I’m with You.
> 
> I'll let you lovely readers theorize which meaning is for Lorelei's soul room.

It’s been some time since anything remotely exciting happened as of late, to Lorelei, this was actually a huge breather for her. So far, no more blackouts had been happening since the events with Chono-sensei, the teacher was a major stressor and she figured that now since she’s gone, she wouldn’t have to worry or stress out anymore. The new teacher was actually pretty chill and was actively working to repair any serious damages caused by her. No stress meant she could focus more on games and fun activities, she even dusted off her duel monsters deck and challenged her friends at school (the score between her and Yugi were tied, just like everything else; a lot of students made a bet to see if someone was going to be the true champion of the two), it was fun using her Gravekeepers against her friends – Miho was a fairy user like Anzu and Jasper. Out of the three, Jasper and Anzu were constantly battling head to head to see who had the stronger fairy, it was finally a nice relaxing break after everything the group went through. Just meeting up at the game shop or in the park and just having friendly competition of some kind, heck, Soul Calibur back at the shop was brutal, Katsuya had swore to take down Cassandra by any means possible, to which Jasper just patted his shoulder and wished him luck. He’s been trying for years now and only managed to either throw her out of the ring or crack a piece of armor – and suffered Lorelei’s wrath. Days like this were actually comforting, and since there was no more stress from school anymore aside from the drama with other classmates, Lorelei was happy to write home to let her family and Jasper’s know that the blackouts had finally stopped! All this time, she was worried for no reason and now she felt pretty stupid about it.

Today was another day of school, she was ready to do anything; dressed in her uniform, she made her way down to meet with Jasper and the Mutou family. Today was the rare day off for Mrs. Mutou, so meeting her for the first-time face to face was actually something new; they would catch up and were proud to inform her that ever since they showed up, they were able to adjust with little to no problem! Mrs. Mutou smiled and was happy for them, she did tease her father who was downstairs at the time, saying that “I hope my dad hadn’t filled your heads with stories of cursed tombs” the trio just silently decided to not say anything that had happened lately. It was probably best to just stay quiet. That was probably the first sign they should have seen, especially when Sugoroku came upstairs with the mail and the daily newspaper. A new Egyptian exhibit was opening at the museum tomorrow!

“We definitely have to go!” Jasper’s eyes lit up.

“No, no you really don’t have to.” Mrs. Mutou said. “Really, just because my dad told you stories about his times as an archaeologist, doesn’t mean you have to go on his behalf.”

“Are you kidding?” Lori laughed. “Ma’am, you should have seen Jasper and I when were six and visiting Vegas to see distant relatives. We visited the Luxor hotel and casino – okay we didn’t stay long, just to walk around some, but we did go to the King Tut’s Tomb and Museum over and over.” 

Jasper nodded. “It was our favorite place of all time, well next to the pirate show in Treasure Island. We didn’t care for anything else but those two places.”

“Oh no, I’m hosting two more archaeologists.” Mrs. Mutou laughed.

Yugi looked over at the two. “We should invite the group to go with us tomorrow, it’ll be a great way to get out of our usual routine.”

And that was the plan, the trio finished up breakfast and started off for school. Along they way they did the usual pick-up of Anzu and Katsuya and talking about the exhibit – as well as some childhood stories, that part was Yugi’s fault when he mentioned the two going to a museum in Vegas. Jasper added fuel to the fire when he took out his wallet and showed a picture of them when they were six; Lorelei had her dark hair held up in a ponytail with a cute peacock hair clip in, dressed in a pink shirt that had Flik and Atta from Bug’s Life, and a pair of white lacy shorts, next to her was Jasper in a Batman shirt and black shorts, his messy light purple hair was covered with a cap that had the Batman logo on it, both of them were holding onto black cat plushies. Katsuya laughed and made the comment that even as kids, they were such nerds in their own right. When prompted why Jasper had the picture still, he said it was his favorite moment of them growing up – bonding over Ancient Egypt and animated media.

School went by in a blink of an eye, the group agreed to go to the exhibit’s opening. Everyone was excited that their daily shenanigans were taken over by story time and a sleepover at the Mutou’s (The girls got the guest room where Lori and Jasper resided, and the boys were in Yugi’s room). The next day, everyone rushed to get up and dressed for the day, Lorelei went in her favorite floral dress – white with little red flowers on vines wrapping around and her flats. A one of a kind that Jasper’s grandma had made it for her on Christmas and it lasted for years to come (kind of like that one pink floral skirt she’s had since sixth grade…Lori was pretty certain witchcraft was used on those two pieces of clothing). Jasper was just in his Phantom of the Opera shirt and a pair of jeans, he looked at her and shook his head; “We’re going to a museum, Lori, not to a Broadway.” She just gave him the middle finger in response as they made their way out to the front door. The strange part, the moment they got outside to wait for the others, the millennium puzzles started to glow and became one again. Lorelei held the puzzle in her hands and looked at it before looking to Jasper and Yugi for a silent explanation; neither had an answer for her. Jasper theorized that maybe because any and all harm was finally neutralized that it didn’t need to be in two anymore, Yugi shook his head to that. He won’t lie, he was concerned as well as Lori was; he had a feeling that there was something more to the puzzle than just that. Actually, unlike Lorelei who wrote everything off as stress, he had his doubts about the whole thing; he would understand if one person had these weird memory problems or blackouts under stress but both at the same time and sometimes in the same setting? There had to be more. He just kept quiet; he didn’t want to freak anyone out about it. Upon being questioned by the group, Yugi and Lorelei just agreed to go with Jasper’s explanation of things, satisfied they made their way to the museum. 

*****

“Whoa look at this!” Anzu was by a display of Anubis judging the heart of the departed. “Hey Lori, you’re the expert on ancient Egypt, can you tell me what it is?” she asked with a playful smile.

“When did I became the expert?” Lorelei walked over and looked at the scene.

“When you started going to King Tut’s exhibit at age six.” Miho giggled. “You were so adorable!”

Lorelei threw her hands in the air and shook her head in disbelief, she was going to get Jasper back for showing that childhood picture. But she had to admit, it was her favorite memory too, especially when they got some of the jewelry from the giftshop and went as the royalty of Egypt for their school’s costume party. She smiled and turned to the display and was about to explain it, but the professor beat her to it; Judgement of the Dead, where the departed person’s heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at and if the heart was lighter than the feather they would go to the afterlife, if the heart was heavier they would be devoured by the monster Amit. For some reason, Lorelei actually found great joy in how the judgement went, hell, she was already imagining people she would send to judgement and- whoa! Stop! Where did those thoughts come from? She hurried and cleared her mind of such a thought and moved over to the mummy instead, she stood in front of the glass and gave a small smile to the person inside, she even laid a hand on the glass. There was something peaceful about seeing him like this, she could see why death was called eternal rest, it actually looked like he was asleep.

From her peripheral vision, she saw a man beside her holding a golden scale. She turned and looked at him; dressed in white and in a turban, tears flowing down his face. When she turned to get a better look at him, he had a golden key around his neck.

“Excuse me, sir? Are you alright?” she asked.

The man looked down at her before returning his attention to the mummy. “I am well.” He replied.

“The tears say otherwise.” Lorelei braved it and took a step closer to him. “Need a shoulder?”

He shook his head. “These tears are not my own. This shriveled form has become a doll of dust, but still he is the Eternal Pharaoh, his spirit lives on with his name. Even the eternal sleep is denied him…the cry of his soul becomes tears and flows down my cheek.”

Okay, that was a weird explanation. Lorelei just stared and slowly nodded in understanding, she knew how important the afterlife was for a lot of people in the past (even to this day, the afterlife was important to a lot of people), being denied that would be heartbreaking. The man turned his attention back to her and gently patted her head with a small smile.

“You’re a kind girl.” Was all he said before vanishing into the crowd.

She took back her previous statement. _That_ was the weirdest thing she’s had to deal with, she was starting to wish she had the puzzle back on. But just as the group showed up the director of the museum wanted to put the puzzle on display for one day; both she and Yugi hesitated at first, but…it was only for one day, it wouldn’t be that bad right? Right! Speaking of her group, she hurried away from the mummy and caught up with Jasper and the others, and right on time too, they were just about to take a group picture with the puzzle. Jasper even joked saying ‘The curse is finally contained, Lori’s and Yugi’s souls are saved!’ he laughed as she went after him. After the visit, Lorelei took it upon herself to get the puzzle back when the museum closed; she had to assure everyone that she was fine, she could use the quiet time to herself and if anyone tried to mess with her, well…Katsuya and Jasper can confirm that she could take care of herself. 

Time ticked on and she killed it by playing a few rounds of Love Nikki, it was one of her ways to clear her mind and think things through; the events that had happened with the puzzle were just stress right? Well, that was the logical route, but even then, she had to be honest it was rather weird. First night after finishing the puzzle, Jasper relayed to her that she and Yugi played a knife game with Ushio; she has no memory of that, other than the ‘dream’ where duel monsters came out of the puzzle. Then there was where she went after the gang that was giving Katsuya hell, again she didn’t remember that, all she remembered was being with Katsuya after and him telling her that some of the members were electrocuted to death. The escaped convict and the senior that had sever burns, it was starting to sound less of a stressful day and more on a curse? No, curses didn’t exist…did they? The professor said that curses were a work of fiction, and the whole King Tut’s curse was due to the bacteria in the tomb. So why was this happening to her and Yugi? She shuddered and looked at the time on her game, it was five minutes to closing, she turned her tablet off and put it back into her purse before going back inside. The puzzle wasn’t in the case, no doubt the man who ran the exhibit had it in his office for her to pick up, now the trick was to find the office.

Walking alone in a dark museum was kind of creepy. She personally blamed the horror movies, but she expected the mummy to come out of the case and come after her, or a serial killer lurking in the halls ready to jump and stab her. She paused in place after hearing another set of footsteps, she took a breath and moved to the side, ready to explain why she was here; it was likely security or a custodian. To her surprise, it was actually the strange Egyptian from earlier! She felt a little bit at ease when she saw a familiar figure.

“Oh! It’s you from earlier, I guess you’re closing up huh?” She asked. “Do you know where Mr. Kanekura’s office is? He said he would return the Millennium Puzzle to me, well it’s not really mine it actually belongs to a friend. I offered to collect the puzzle for him.” All she got was a surprised reaction before a slight narrowed eye look. “What’s wrong? Did I say something?”

The man said nothing but took the key off and pressed it against her forehead.  
  


To say he was surprised was an understatement. Shadi stood in the corridor of the girl’s soul and was greeted to two soul rooms; in his years of traversing through the souls of many, never had he encountered such a sight. He made his way into the opened room; her walls were white with orange flowers – purity and innocence with creativity, upon closer look at the flowers he found tinges of red, yellow, and blue in the petals; passionate, happiness, and intelligent. The flowers themselves were in the shape of daffodils – a flower with numerous pleasant meanings and pleasant colors to compliment it. The rest of the room seemed to be a studio room; spacious to fill with dreams, ideas, and memories. There was one dark corner of the bright room that caught his attention, as he walked over, he saw it was a dusty display case that was filled with awards of her past achievements; some trophies and awards were more well maintained than others. Another section of the room was dedicated to a shrine of a boy, the plaque read ‘Jasper’ and it was covered in pictures of them growing up as well as trinkets from their childhood; such as two black cat stuffed animals with ribbons reading Sally and Luci, a small trophy that said ‘Best Tag Team’, and finally, a necklace hanging in front that was half of a heart that read ‘Best’. Shadi was convinced if he went into this Jasper’s soul room, he would find the necklace that read ‘Friend’ in place. An area dedicated to games, notebooks (which he later learned were filled with story ideas), and a sparring corner that was decorated with posters of superheroes. In all, this cheerful girl was ambitious. An ambitious soul was always something to be proud of, they were able to go the distance in the future.

That left the other door; iron and rusty with the Eye of Horus staring right back at him. He left the room he was in and slowly opened the door, and there standing there with a patient expression was the girl from before! No, that wasn’t right, this girl before him – though similar in appearance, was nothing like the kind and ambitious girl he met. Her dark navy hair had some subtle curls with dark purple highlights, the dress she wore was shorter and stopped above the knee and the neckline was no longer a sweetheart neckline but more of an A-line, but what took him back were her eyes. Instead of the warm and gentle green eyes, he was greeted to bright acidic green eyes that held mischief, confidence, and curiosity in them. That sharp smile she had wasn’t any better with her bright red lipstick that mimicked blood.

“Well, well, a visitor has entered my room.” She purred. “Come in, don’t be shy, I have a game for us.” She beckoned him to enter with one of her clawed nails. Long and sharp and painted in black glittery polish.

Shadi swallowed the uneasiness he had and cautiously walked into the soul room before him. Every person had one soul room and though different, it was always furnished and showed what the person was truly like; but this room was cold and dark, upon closer inspection it felt like he had entered the Pharaoh’s tomb! Was that even possible? True, on the shrine from the other room there was a picture of the girl with that Jasper boy standing by an Egyptian exhibit, but that wasn’t enough influence for this room was it?

The other girl’s expression went from mischief and playful to a more territorial look. She crossed her arms and leaned on her heels and honing in on him. “I’m not sure what power you used to enter here, but I would suggest you start explaining yourself.” The hidden warning was there; ‘answer my questions honestly, or else suffer the consequences’.

“From your perspective, I am an unwanted guest.” Shadi agreed. “Answering your question is the least I can do. I’m here to discover the secrets of your Millennium Puzzle.” He watched her, though it didn’t look like much changed, her eyes did widen a little.

“Oh? You know of the puzzle?”

“Indeed, I also know it is one of the other Millennium Items. Their story dates back over three thousand years ago to the Valley of the Kings, and as it is written in the Per Em Hru, they were made by magicians who served the Pharaohs in order to punish thieves, who would defile tombs of Pharaohs and steal treasures.”

Her frown grew. “And you came here with one of these items?”

“The Millennium Key.” He confirmed. “The key opens the door to one’s soul. In the room of the soul one discovers everything about a person; who they are, what they love, what they fear, and even what they themselves do not know. As well as the Millennium Scales, with it, they weigh the sins of a person on trial.” He looked back in her eyes. “However, I don’t know the power of the Millennium Puzzle as it has never been solved.”

“And so, you entered my soul to find this power out?” She tilted her head a little.

“If I can see a person’s “room” I can see what kind of power they possesss. That is what I came to discover, and if that power is needed I will it draw it into my bloodline.” 

A wave of confusion brushed over the girl, she wouldn’t admit it, but she couldn’t really make heads or tails from what was said by him. She replaced the confusion with a grin and shook her head.

“The power does indeed rest in this room.” She confirmed. “However, you know the rules; this is a Shadow Game. The power you seek, is in my true room. If you can find it, you’ll find what you’re looking for.” She didn’t even miss the smirk the other had; what a cocky individual. She’ll take care of him soon enough.

With him accepting the game, she grinned and snapped her fingers to reveal a labyrinth. Poor strange man was so bewildered. Where did he even begin! She chuckled and grinned viciously at him; “What’s wrong? I already said, ‘Game Start’ make the first move already.”

*****

Was this game unfair? Perhaps, but she wasn’t really expecting him to win this game; it wasn’t that she wanted him to lose, she just had little faith that anyone would be able to find that true room. Being in the shadows for so long, she even lost sight of that true room, if she couldn’t find it, why would she expect that strange robed man to find it. It was laughable really, but she couldn’t really muster so much of a ‘heh’. This puzzle had many secrets; such as there being a second presence in this hall of doors, she wasn’t sure who it was or what it wanted, but she knew that they weren’t a threat. Whoever this second party that shared her space was, they were just as lost as she was – that would be the next thing on her to-do list; find this person and meet face to face. Maybe they’re the answer to finding out the puzzle’s secrets and where her true room was. That would have to wait until her ‘guest’ gave up on her game, though for some reason there seemed to be more traps in place than usual, that would have to be question number two; was her ‘roommate’ the one who is setting these? If that’s true, then wow, they must not really like this man invading their space. There was one other thing about the puzzle and that was Little Lorelei, she hasn’t officially met the girl or even made a connection with her, but with what she’s been seeing from the shadows the girl was definitely the light she needed. She couldn’t get over her laughter, her shenanigans with her friends, and her competitive spirit. It was days like those that made the shadows and this damn labyrinth bearable. It was settled, her to-do list was as followed; find the one who shares her room, and connect with Lorelei. How hard can it be?

Her thoughts were interrupted when the door to the room she was in opened. Of course, she had her guest to tend to. Turning to the robed man, she straightened herself up on the throne she was seated on; he was going to regret coming to this room; this one she knew she designed. This was her ‘alone’ room where she wanted nothing to bother her, and her ‘guest’ was going to learn that the hard way. And he did, one step into the room and he was holding onto a brick for dear life. Standing up, she made her way over and knelt down by him, grinning her wicked grin at him.

“I wonder…should I push you in and see where you land?” She laughed and held her hand to him. She may be harsh (at least, she thinks she might be harsh…it was hard to tell). “Come now, don’t tell me you’re afraid of cooties.”

He grabbed her hand and she pulled him up and guided him to the entrance of the door. “I’m rather bored of this game.” She held open the door to the corridor. “You should leave, I don’t approve of your method of judgement nor do I want to see you in this room again.”

“Thank you for helping me.” He bowed his head. “Have I lost this game?”

“No, you didn’t lose.” She started off. “But you didn’t really win either, this is only the beginning.”

“You may be right, farewell, may the next time our paths meet the game has an ending.”

Shadi awoke back in the museum and in front of the girl once more, he was on his knees and catching his breath. Whoever that darker presence was it was clear she was quite protective of that room; never had he’s seen that many traps before. Of course, since the true power was a mystery, perhaps it wasn’t all her doing. He was brought back to the now when he felt a gentle shake on his shoulder, he looked up and saw the kind girl before him; hair dark blue hair with the purple highlights was straight and pulled back by a headband, soft green eyes, short nails painted black and glittered, light red lipstick, and her dress flowing past her knees. Her soft voice calling out and asking if he was okay versus the cold tone from the darker self. He slowly stood up and nodded with a soft smile of his own, assuring her that he was indeed okay, she was a strange girl alright; caring about a complete stranger.

“I almost forgot, I believe this is yours?” he held out the puzzle, he watched as those soft green eyes lit up with joy. She was definitely different than the darker self that resided in her. Did they know of each other?

“Thank you so much! I was afraid how I was going to break the news to my friend if I didn’t return home with it!” she held it close and put it on.

Her friend? What was his role with the puzzle?

“There’s no need to thank me, I’m in your debt after all.” He smiled gently.

“Wait…what? If you’re talking about earlier today, I just did what felt right…you looked upset and I thought you needed to talk to someone?” 

“Perhaps I should be clearer, I am referring to your other-self.”

“My other-self?” She repeated. Confusion washed over her before she started to laugh, “Good joke, there’s only one me!” she pointed to herself. “I’m not Dr. Jekyll.”

Strange, did she not know of the other girl inside of her? Shadi raised an eyebrow and waited until she was done laughing before speaking to her again. “Miss, what did you say your name was?”

She blinked. “I never told you it, but…my name is Royal, Royal Lorelei.” She introduced. “Why do you ask?”

So that’s it, two sides exist within her and she truly doesn’t know of the “Other Lorelei” they need to join in order to awaken the true power. He shook his head, and turned to leave, but not before parting with one final piece of information; she has to discover her other self and solve the riddle of the power of the Millennium Puzzle, as it is the destiny of the person who solves it. 

Lorelei just stared as he left in the shadows. How did an afternoon trip to the museum end like this? Power of the Puzzle? She understood prophecies were a thing, but what bothered her was the line about the destiny of the one who solved it. She didn’t do it alone, both she and Yugi solved it together, they had the two puzzles and for some reason today it just rejoined as one. With a huff, she turned and left the museum, she definitely needed to talk to someone about this. 

*****

“How long does it take to recover one ancient artifact?” Jasper demanded. “Seriously girl, you were gone for hours after closing!”

“I’m sorry, but something strange actually happened.” She sat on the bed. “This weird guy from earlier was there, I asked him about the puzzle and he placed some key to my head and went still.”

“Okay, time out, rewind for a minute.” He sat beside. “Start from the beginning.”

So, she did. She told him about the first encounter with the robed man in the museum and how he was crying earlier – before saying that the tears were actually the mummy’s (Okay, weird, but go on.) then he just vanished into the crowd, she ran into him again when she was looking for the puzzle and asked about it, he narrowed his eyes before pressing a key to her forehead and going still (what the hell?), then sometime later he was on his knees and catching his breath, they talked and he told her about some destiny for the one who solved the puzzle and then she returned home.

“Okay…There’s a lot to unpack from that story alone.” Jasper held his forehead. “Did you correct him about the puzzle? That you solved it _with_ someone?”

She shook her head. “No, because he was pretty fucking weird and I didn’t want to get Yugi involved! Who knows what he would have done if I told him that there were two people who solved it!”

“And you decided to just go along with whatever he was saying?” He challenged.

“Okay when you say it like that, it does sound like a bad idea.” She flinched. “Sorry.”

“Did you say anything else to him? Even if it didn’t seem like much?”

“I told him thanks for finding the puzzle, and that I wouldn’t know what my friend would say if I hadn’t returned with it. But I was with others than just you, so I think we’re good.” She sighed. “Then he mentioned about another me, but I told him that there’s just me and no-one else, I wasn’t like Dr. Jekyll.”

Jasper nodded. “Okay, so we just have to be careful.” He held her close. “I mean, you took gold a few times in things like kick-boxing, I think we’re in good hands.” He ruffled her head. “Come on, let’s get some rest, maybe things will clear up tomorrow.”

Famous last words. For when morning came, there was a mysterious death at the museum; Kanekura-san was found dead in his office, the cause of death was a heart attack. Judging by his expression, something had scared him to death! That didn’t make sense, he was in fine health when the group had met him. Lorelei and Jasper just looked at each other with a worried expression on their faces, did that strange man had anything to do with this? There were more questions than answers at this point and they were too afraid to ask those questions, they didn’t want the answer to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the King Tut's museum story: This is actually something from MY childhood! I won't give the full story since I just said it as Lorelei. When I was a cute six year old, my family and I went to Las Vegas to visit my great aunt and when we heard there was an ancient Egypt exhibit mom and I went there while my Grandma and Great Grandma went to gamble. I don't have much memories of the place, so maybe one year I'll return and visit the museum again.
> 
> Lorelei's pink shirt: This is another thing from my childhood. That's all I know
> 
> The pink floral skirt: Okay look, that's another thing except...I still have this skirt today. The freaky part? I'm going to be 28 in October AND THE SKIRT STILL FITS LIKE IT DID BACK IN 6TH GRADE! I don't know what sorcery was done to that thing but I still have ONE thing from grade school still in my closet. Don't get me wrong, I love the skirt, just needed to bring to life about this cryptic skirt.


	5. The Other Criminal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I'm going to lose it if I continue this. *looks at the arcs after season 0*...It'll be worth it! [Ad lib? What's that? Never heard of her.]
> 
> Also, Joey babe? I Hope I got the flowers right for you, if not...Too Bad, I spent an entire night on this chapter with no sleep and having to deal with my pets being hellraisers. I'm sitting here watching Arthur slap the baby and growling because the baby won't leave him alone as I write these fanfic notes. Harry just bit Arthur...I am so glad our guild isn't meeting until Monday :') 
> 
> And Yes, I know that some flowers share a meaning, but some of my favorite flowers have negative meanings and I didn't really want to transfer that over. Flower meanings have a place in my work and I will ALWAYS go for accuracy in them. So, to keep with the crush, and positivity, some flowers are sharing meanings here.
> 
> Also, for this stupid shadow game, I had to cut it short here because I've been trying to think of how to put my own original spin to Shadi's games, the only problem is is that it is now 4 a.m. and my brain is fried right now so unless someone has an idea; please say so in the comments. [Yugi, I am going to make you suffer in Duelist Kingdom because of this!]

Katsuya paced around the room, he had just finished hearing what Lorelei and Jasper had to say about last night and both he and Yugi were a bit stressed. Yugi was trying to figure out how and why the puzzle went from one thing into two smaller pieces and then returned as whole again, and Katsuya was trying to take in the information given to him without causing his head to explode. So far, neither of the two were having any luck.

“I just want to make sure I’m understanding you two correctly.” He started out. “You’re telling me that yesterday, Jason Todd over there met some weirdo in a white robe in the museum and he did some crazy witchcraft with a key on her.” The nods confirmed it. “And you also suspect him to be responsible for Kanekura-san’s death and your best idea is to go back to the museum and try to track the guy down?” he crossed his arms. “Did you tell this to Sugoroku?”

“Well…” Lorelei bit her lip. “No, No I did not.” That earned a swift whack to the head. “Ow! What the hell, Jasper!”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell him?” Jasper turned to her. “You told Yugi, Katsuya, and myself but not our host?”

“What was I supposed to say? Hey Mr. Mutou, guess what, I ran into a creep with a gold key before I came home.” She scoffed. “That conversation would go so well.”

“This isn’t Scooby-Doo, Lori! We’re not junior detectives like them or Nancy Drew, we can’t do this by ourselves!”

Katsuya whacked them with a pillow to quiet them up. “Alright enough! Look.” He sat down at the table next to Yugi. “You said that Sugoroku was going to the museum to check on his friend, right?” he saw the nods. “If you’re that hell-bent in your investigation, you should go with him.”

“You said you two took self-defense class.” Yugi reminded. “And Katsuya and I can stay behind here and see if we can’t find anything on the Millennium Items, or at least something about the puzzle.”

Jasper pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s all fine, but I don’t trust just taking Lori alone. The creep might target her still and who knows what he’ll do. I’d feel safer if we had a third party.”

“Say no more.” Katsuya took his phone out. “I’m sure Hiro will help you guys out.”

“And just for added security, take the puzzle with too.” Yugi pushed the golden pyramid to her. “Maybe whatever power is inside it will keep you guys safe.”

“Stop giving her cursed jewelry!” Jasper pushed it back. “If you’re so worried, you go!”

That was from this morning. Throughout the day, both Jasper and Lorelei were on pins and needles the whole day; they were constantly looking over their shoulders for the weird man with the gold key or even looking out the window of their class to see if he was out there. It was a longshot and they had their doubts of him getting by security, but who knows what that key could do? Hell, they tried going through the day without causing worry to Yugi or Katsuya; which failed, sometime after lunch, the two pulled them aside and asked if anything had happened yesterday; Jasper kept trying to assure them that everything was fine, but Lorelei was the one who broke down and told them most of the events of last night; she was freaked out and she had a good reason to. It wasn’t after school when they were back at the game shop that she finally told them everything about last night that led them to the conversation they just had and looking back they did have a solid plan; two teams working to figure out what the hell was going on. Team Gamers – Katsuya and Yugi were going to hang back at the shop and look into whatever they could about the Millennium Items or anything about the days of the pharaohs in general. Team Robin – Lorelei, Jasper, and Hiroto were going to accompany Sugoroku to the museum to check on his friend and to see if they could track down this weird robed figure and bring him to justice (“After all, you three have some form of fighting skills. You can knock the guy out, and you have the puzzle so you’ll be good to go!”). Of course, as the saying goes, it’s easier said than done as it took a lot of convincing from Yugi to say that he and Katsuya were fine in their extra credit work and that his grandpa should go and check on the professor; everything would be fine, they had his collection of Egyptology books, their phones, Jasper’s laptop, and Lorelei’s tablet. There was no way they wouldn’t get anything less than 100%! There was a little bit of doubt in Sugoroku’s eyes, but he eventually relented and told them to make sure to take breaks. Team Robin was set to go and Team Gamers were already hitting the books without a second to lose.

And that led to the now, Hiroto was going to meet them at the entrance and accompany them inside, Katsuya wasn’t entirely clear in his request other than ‘just be there for Red Hood and Jasper’ and he was a man of his word; yeah he was rough around the edges, but he was a top student as well as Anzu (even though his rank was actually janitor), so he agreed to stay by their sides and keep his friends safe – no idea what was going on, but he’d still keep the three safe. After seeing the group arrive, he waved at them and followed them into the building. The dark halls of the museum sent a shiver down Lorelei’s spine as she pressed close to her childhood friend for support and a little protection. Yeah, she was better at fighting than him, but that didn’t mean she was fearless or anything, the only time she didn’t bat an eyelash was when she slammed Katsuya’s face into a desk, but that was different than going up against a potential murderer! Sensing her uneasiness, Jasper held her close and rubbed her arm in comfort, smiling down at her to assure her that everything was going to be okay in the end. Maybe the creep actually skipped out of Japan after murdering Kanekura and they could finally rest easy knowing he’s nowhere in the area! It was a little bit of wishful thinking, they always say the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime, and that saying couldn’t have been true enough.

As the night progressed on, Shadi had entered the room of Yoshimori, a professor who preferred the ancient life over his family (at least, that’s what he gathered from the dusted picture), there was a glimmer of light from within his room and upon further inspection he saw the man’s friend coming along the way and…Lorelei! He deduced that the second round of their shadow game was arriving sooner than expected. Perhaps there could be some used to the professor after all. With a quick work of his soul room, Yoshimori became his puppet all he had to do was wait in the shadows until little Lorelei came in; bring out that other side of her and their game could begin. Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long, she came with her entourage – it appears tonight would have a few casualties, well…that was how things had to be if he wanted the Other Lorelei to come out and play their game. He watched as the professor lunged at the brunette, strangling him before the girl and the other two, despite two of their attempts to pry him off. The puppet wouldn’t let up until _She_ arrived, he was rather rude, wasn’t he? But it couldn’t be helped, the only way for him to stop was if _She_ came out. To his surprise, it was her dear friend – Jasper, if he had to guess, that got the puppet off the other (A whack to the face with a globe). Well now, this duo was full of surprises, it was clear having the man make her friends suffer wasn’t enough, he would need to up the ante a little, but which one would do the trick? Oh, who was he kidding, he already knew who to target.

That beautiful studio that was Lorelei’s soul room was unique yes, but so was Jasper’s. A beautiful well-lit garden house with a tent covering; flowers grew alongside the walls – Bird of paradise, white carnations, daisies, and Irises of different hues, ovens and other kitchen items filled the majority of the place, of course in one area of the tent there was a dining area with a large table and gold placemats with different names; Lorelei – a given, Sugoroku, Katsuya, Hiroto, Anzu, Miho, Mrs. Royal, Mr. Royal, and of course his parents as well. If he had to guess, each time Jasper made a connection with someone another chair was added to the table, sitting on top were a few games and a scoresheet. Moving on, he found the same shrine from Lorelei’s room and just as he suspected he found the other half of the necklace with the word ‘friend’ on it. One picture on the shrine was them sitting with black cats and huddled together in a hotel lobby – sitting in front of a statue and pool with palm trees, the name of the hotel was beside them; Luxor. Even as children, the two seemed to love Egypt, it warmed his heart some. But alas, he couldn’t afford to be sentimental, he had a job to do after all. There was one final part of the room that caught his attention; a corkboard with pictures and theories written down. There was a blank silhouette of Lorelei in the center and above read _‘Who is the Other Lori’_ ; blurred images and notes such as _**‘Like Beatrice she can be cruel – She caused someone to light himself on fire and laughed!’ ‘Protective of us, maybe she’s not that bad?’ ‘I don’t think Lori knows about her – should I even tell her?!’ ‘Has a weird view of justice, but I can’t blame her – of course I do think she goes a bit over the top’**_. How cute, her dear friend was trying to solve the mystery as well, too bad he didn’t have anything new to share; maybe there was more on the back? There was, a little shrine of a blond youth and decorated with hearts, acacia blossoms, yellow camellias, and red carnations; how adorable, he was pining over the blonde. 

He’d hate to have to do this, but it had to be done. Jasper would be the perfect puppet to use, but unlike the professor, he would be a doll. And that was enough to get little Lori’s attention, she looked at him with wide-eyed fear. She was shaking with a wide variety of emotions; this is exactly what he wanted from her. 

“He’s certainly admirable.” Shadi said, running a hand in those lavender locks. “I can see why you two clicked as children you both are ambitious in every sense of the word, yet you both have different flowers decorating your rooms.”

Lorelei put on a brave face; fear was still present in her eyes. “You let him go right now, and return the professor to normal!” 

“I’m afraid you’re in no position to be making demands, Little Lori. Jasper here is important in bringing the Other Lorelei out, if you want him safely returned just call her out.”

“I _told_ you there _is no_ ‘Other Lorelei’! I’m the only one!” she screamed.

It seemed as though she needed a little more of a push. Shadi slowly blinked and looked down at Jasper, “Lorelei, this boy is a doll that will obey any order I give him.” He started off in an eerie calm voice. “If I were to order him to die,” he looked back up at her. “He _will_ die, his heart will stop and he will be no more.”

That was all it took. For instead of the sweet girl, the Other Lorelei was before him yet again; dark navy hair had some subtle curls with dark purple highlights, the school uniform she wore was shorter and the neckline was once more an A-line, bright acidic green eyes that held rage and hatred in them as she sneered at him with her bright red lipstick that mimicked blood.

“You son of a fucking bitch!” She was posed and ready to jump at him. “I’ll fucking kill you!” she threatened.

“It’s nice to meet you again, Other Lorelei, the second part of our game can now begin.”

She recoiled a little and lowered her hands. Fuck, the game wasn’t technically over; they agreed to the conditions of finding out the power of the puzzle around her neck and now the ball was in his court. “You’re not still mad about my little traps, are you?” she cooed. “I’m hurt that you would bring my best friend into our game.”

“You can drop your sweet talk.” He looked to a clock. “Meet us at the rooftop at three a.m. our game will continue there.” He led Jasper out. “Oh, and it’s probably best if you finish our game soon, I’m not sure how your other friend will fare against the professor.”

“I can still slit your throat.” She warned. “I spy a letter opener with your blood on it sitting pretty on the desk.”

“If you do that, Jasper and Professor Yoshimori will forever be puppets of my design.” He smirked.

*****

Damn him. Damn him to hell! No, not hell. Hell would be too good of a place for him, damn him into the void where he will be forever isolated, no other human around to converse with. Just, let him go mad with loneliness! Lorelei sighed and held her head, now was not the time to be having a meltdown, she needed a clear head to work if she ever hope to win this game; Shadi, she wasn’t sure what drives him, but one thing was for certain; the moment he messed with Jasper, he became her enemy. Straightening herself up, she made her way to the rooftop of the museum, three a.m. couldn’t have come quickly enough; she was worried about Hiroto though, he was keeping the zombified professor busy and she didn’t know how long he could keep at it. Even more of a motive to win; save Jasper and Hiroto together – and make sure Mr. Mutou didn’t have a concussion from the sudden knockout from the zombie. Fucking hell, what a night she was having. As if her night wasn’t hell enough, when she arrived at the rooftop as instructed, she was greeted to a horrifying sight; Jasper was standing on a board with a noose around his neck!

“JASPER!” She rushed over to the gated edge. “Jasper, I know you’re in there, wake up!” 

“Welcome to the trials of the mind, Lorelei.” Shadi greeted calmly.

“You-! How dare you! You already turned him into a doll, you don’t need him for our game!”

“Oh, but I do.” He looked at him. “And you can see that if you lose the game you will lose him for good.” He turned back to her. “It’s curious; you a simple girl managed to come into possession of the Millennium Puzzle, but…Jasper’s memories say you’ve been keeping a vital piece of information away. A puzzle that split in two, two owners of this piece, two solvers of a puzzle that nobody has been able to solve for three thousand years!”

“Maybe I didn’t want you to go after my friends.” She hissed. “Besides, they say two heads are better than one, perhaps my friend and I managed by working together.”

“If it were an ordinary puzzle you find in any shop, perhaps, but no…that puzzle chose you both to wield it, and tonight it joined as one for you.” Shadi nodded. “Tonight, you are the holder, just like my bloodline has been chosen to hold the key and scale.”

She scoffed. “If this is your sick way of saying we’re allies, you’re delusional.” She crossed her arms. “You didn’t call me up here to discuss the Millennium Items, you called me here for a game, now shut the fuck up, and start it.”

“Come now Little Lori, don’t be afraid.” He watched her flinch. “I know deep in your heart you’re afraid of the unknown power, that’s your weakness.”

“Me? Afraid?” She gave a soft laugh. “Why would I be afraid, I embrace the unknown!”

“Do you?” he pointed to Jasper. Upon turning, one of the figurines that were tied to the board and the gate cracked and shattered. The rope that the broken figurine was tied to fell, to add to the grim reality the rope in question was holding the board that was keeping Jasper safe. “The game had started, allow me to explain the rules then.”

Was this revenge for earlier inside her labyrinth? It wasn’t even a win or lose game! Both ended in a stalemate as she didn’t even know the power; he couldn’t find the room she tasked him to so there was no conclusion! This game was worse than hers; if her ushebti breaks, Jasper would hang, she needed to break the one that held the key and let it slide to his hand to save him. Fine, if he wants to play hardball, she’ll happily oblige and once Jasper was safe, she was going to kill Shadi with his own fucking key.

“Stage one, begin.” Shadi called out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flower Meanings  
> Acacia blossoms: Concealed love, Beauty in Retirement, Chaste Love  
> red carnation: My heart aches for you, Love, Pride, Admiration  
> yellow camellia: Longing  
> bird of paradise: Joyfulness, Magnificence, Exciting and Wonderful Anticipation  
> White Carnation: Innocence, Pure Love  
> Daisy: Faith, Innocence, Purity, Loyal Love, I’ll Never Tell, Hope/(Gerbera): Cheerfulness  
> Iris:(General): Fleur-de-lis, Emblem of France, Eloquence, Your friendship means so much to me, Faith, Hope, Wisdom, Valor, My Compliment. Pride/(Yellow): Passion/ (Blue): Faith, Hope


	6. Playing his Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, two shadow games in one chapter. This was a nightmare to do, but look; we're going to be doing that again with the Card Bomber and Yoyo gang. This is to cut down chapters for season 0 and so we can get to Duelist Kingdom faster.
> 
> Edit: So...I lost my braincells as did the characters. Guys, come on; where does a teacher place all of the things they confiscate? IN THEIR OFFICE! x_x gah!

“Stage one, begin.” Shadi called out.

Lorelei huffed, she’s been in her fair share of shadow games and the outcomes were always in her favor. She faced against a man with a gun pointed to her face, she fixed him up – after all, he wanted a smoke, she gave him a smoke. And flames. There was nothing that Shadi could do that would cause her ushebti to break. And it was moments like this that she really had to stop jinxing herself, for the moment she made that vow to herself the roof started to crack and out sprung mummies, she shrieked and backed away only for one of their bony hands grab her by the legs. She tried to kick them off and even fight off the ones that were clawing at her back but they wouldn’t relent!

Shadi stood to the side and watched the scene before her. Other Lorelei wasn’t the only one who would play mind games with others, what she was facing was just a simple illusion before her. It almost made him grin from the sight, this prideful person was finally knocked down a few pegs from corpses that weren’t even there to begin with! As much as he wanted to relish in this, they had a game to play.

“Those creatures are part of a riddle, Lorelei.” Shadi called. “What creeps along the ground and clings to the pillar?”

There was the strange growing of bloodlust brewing within her. What the hell kind of riddle was he getting at? Hearing the small crack to her side, she froze up and closed her eyes; there was no time to panic, panicking would only make the situation worse for both her and Jasper and she wasn’t ready to lose him not now, not ever. Closing her eyes, she took a breath and steadied herself; okay Lorelei, it was time to think this through – the riddle ‘What creeps along the ground and clings to the pillar’ was actually a common riddle one could find in any book. The corpses – Shadi was trying to cause her heart to break using fear. So that was his game was it? With a clear and easy mind, she stared at the robed man and gave her answer. “My Shadow!”

The corpses vanished and it was once again just her and Shadi. The man just chuckled lightly and congratulated her; he wasted no time in getting the second game started. Looking around and trying to keep her guard up, the cracks once more formed – seriously, what was with him and his bottomless pits? She barely had time to register before a familiar hissing and clicking sound was heard and two inky-black claws were seen grabbing her and holding her in place. The Xenomorph? How the hell was this even here?! No, no, she knew the answer…fucking shadow magic, this was just unfair!

“Do you like her? She took on this form just for you Lorelei.”

“Explain yourself right now!” She shrieked. “Is this another one of your illusions to break me!”

He gave a light shrug. “Illusion or no, she’s quite deadly. Once those teeth touch you, you’ll die the same painful death as her last meal.” He watched her struggle in the claws before speaking again. “I suppose a proper introduction is needed if you’re to get acquainted. Lorelei, meet Ammit; the devourer of souls. I assume you’re familiar with her story, those whose hearts were heavier than the feather of Ma’at were fed to her; hearts like Kanekura, he wasn’t quite a meal I’m afraid.”

And she thought she was the one with murderous tendencies. That explained so much and yet so little at the same time, what kind of game did those two have and was it even a fair fight? At least one thing is for certain, Ammit had a makeover to the one creature she feared the most – Aliens was a good movie, but the Xenomorph still haunted her nightmares to this day. Shadi was quite the bastard, wasn’t he? She was brought back into the now when she heard the rooftiles shift into a grid with question marks in the center of each of the nine squares. 

“You are familiar with the game concentration, yes?” Shadi asked.

“With an even number of cards.” Lorelei spat. “Get your eyes checked, there’s an odd number of tiles.”

“That is true in the case of a normal game, but these tiles reflect Ammit.” He smirked. “Without turning any of the tiles, you must name the picture on the ninth.” He laughed. “I’ll be nice and give you five minutes to solve it.”

A mirror of the monster and of Ammit…Wait a damn minute, there was a flaw in this game! The Xenomorph doesn’t have eyes or nostrils; with the confident smirk her opponent has, it was clear he wasn’t paying too much attention to detail when he summoned this illusion. He said Ammit took on the form of her nightmare, he must only be able to see the true form. Well, well, if that’s the game he was going to play, she could play the same game.

“This puzzle is rigged!” She called.

Shadi held his hand up and made the monster pull back some, his eyes narrowed dangerously at her. “A serious accusation, Miss Royal.” He warned. “What is your reasoning for this?”

“Six tiles shouldn’t be here; eyes, ears, and nostrils.” She smirked. “If you knew anything about the form your monster had chosen you would know that the Xenomorph doesn’t have those, but what it does have is the iconic two mouths.” She nodded behind her. “Clearly, you were only thinking of your monster’s true form when you made the puzzle and not the one she took, if you truly wanted to make your puzzle mirror the monster you would have five tiles; two for the mouth, two for the claws, and one for the sharp spiny tail that she uses to impale her victims.”

Silence as well as his dark look was his reply to what she had said.

“Go ahead Shadi, tell me that I’m wrong.” She challenged.

There was nothing more he could do. If he ordered the monster to kill her then the game would be for naught, she left zero room for loopholes to exploit so challenging her authority would be a waste of time. And the crack from his own ushebti was all he needed to dispel the illusion; he really didn’t want to do such, but she technically did pass this challenge and there was still one more game to play before everything comes to an end.

“We’re on the final round now.” He said calmly. “Are you ready?”

When was she never ready? Lorelei huffed and watched as the floor around her sank into a bottomless pit, the shadows morphed and before her stood her best friend; Shadi was playing dirty with this for when the shadows made her friend, Jasper had a cold look in his eyes and a sneer on his face. A colder version of the person she would call her brother.

The other Jasper threw a punch to her side, glaring in contempt. “You’re so suffocating!” he yelled. “Your whole damn family is, I wish we’d never met!”

There was a brief moment where the Innocent Lorelei took over and a shatter and another crack was heard. Another statue broke and another was close to breaking. The other Lorelei took back control and held her hand out to him. 

“Jasper…You don’t really mean that.” She said softly.

“He doesn’t?” Shadi spoke up. “The Jasper you see before you is the resentment from his heart, though small, he does seem to resent your family to a certain degree.” He smirked. “I wonder if it’s because of all those club activities you’ve done together? All those competitions, all those needless art classes?”

“Every day I have to get better at everything, I can’t do anything for fun because of your parents! I have to be the best! I have to win, and I can’t say anything about it!” Jasper threw a few more hard punches at her. “I hate you!” he yanked the puzzle from her neck.

Shadi just chuckled. “Quite the friend, isn’t he?” he straightened himself up. “Now then, the game is simple, you each use the puzzle like a die and the person moves two floor tiles to the pit depending on where it lands. First person to push the other into the pit wins.”

“Remember how I called you delusional?” Lorelei asked Shadi. “I take that back; you’re fucking sick in the head!”

This brought a lot of problems, granted this Jasper was just a part of him and she could easily destroy it; but there was also the problem of losing her friend for good even if she did such a thing. It was a tough call, if she lost this round, she wouldn’t see Jasper or anyone again, but if she won…there might be the chance of losing him even if he touched the key. Still, she had to agree that her parents were suffocating at times but…they actually had a say in what activity they wanted to do; Jasper was the one who wanted them to take cooking, Jasper was the one who wanted to do the gardening club, hell it was Jasper who wanted to take up foreign languages because he wanted to impress Lori (She was sick one day and he came by her house and sang a medley of Disney songs in Italian, it was actually the sweetest thing he’s done.) While it was true their parents wanted them to take up the Math club, self-defense, and the other stuff, those were few and in between (Hell, the literature club they made due by bringing in the tropes of their favorite nerdy media into the fray. Comics or No, they found a way to intermingle their interests into the club). Lorelei had to pity Shadi, he truly didn’t know a person at all, no matter what they Millennium Key had shown.

Each roll of the dice brought her closer to the edge until she was staring at the abyss before her, she closed her eye and kept a leveled head, she trusted him, she wasn’t going to play Shadi’s twisted game with her best friend.

“I pass my turn again.” She said softly.

“Are you mad, girl? You’re one turn away from falling to your death!” Shadi hissed. 

What the hell was this girl playing? She’d sooner die than risk the safety of her friend? 

“As I said, I pass my turn again.” She cracked open an eye at him. “Did I not make it clear the first time?”

“You’re giving up? You admit defeat?”

Lorelei chuckled. “Of course not, I trust Jasper with my life.”

“Trust? You truly are foolish; your friend resents your family and you still trust him? Trust is far more fragile than the ushebti. Your weak heart will be the end of you, had you sent Jasper to the pit you might have gained strength.” He looked to the shadow of Jasper. “Throw the puzzle one final time, fulfil her request and end this game.”

Nothing. The shadow just looked at him and started to fade. What on earth was happening? Why was his illusion fading away? The tiles returned and Lorelei picked the puzzle up again, she looked up at him with a strange look in her eyes. Where was the anger? Where was the hatred? She made it clear she hated him and his actions, why wasn’t she acting on those feelings!

“I truly pity you.” She said softly. “You spent all your time entering people’s souls and you still don’t get it. Humans will always have a spot of darkness inside them but it takes a brave heart to not let it consume them. Jasper may resent how my family wants us to take up things like Math Club, Chess Club, Foreign languages, but in the end…we triumph together. We use our interests in them; flowers in literature club, performing get well soon songs in another language, even using math to bring out dealer’s fees.” She smiled. “Past, present, future, I trust Jasper and I know he’ll always trust me. And that’s something you fail to realize in your soul hopping.”

Both were snapped from their conversation when a rope was heard about to snap, the rope that was supporting Jasper was about to snap from the pressure. To her delight, Hiroto was under him and holding the board up, yelling for Jasper to wake up. Hiroto was fine as well, oh thank the heavens he was fine! She turned to Shadi and silently nodded to them, ‘try and tell me I’m wrong, the evidence is right there’

Shadi just couldn’t believe it, but it was there in front of him. Lorelei and her other friend were working on getting Jasper to safety, even going as far as trying to untie the rope that held his own ushebti just to get the key down to him. He watched ass the cracks from earlier began to grow and his own statue broke before him, watching as the key glided down and fell into the boy’s hand.

“What the hell happened?” Jasper was holding his head. “Where-” he stared and found himself on the platform and with a noose around his neck. “Oh my god, what the fuck!?” He rushed to get the rope off him. “Fucking hell!”

“Hey welcome back, Jasper.” Lorelei called to him. “hurry and get over!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” he carefully yet hurried over to the roof.

“One down, one to go.” She turned to Hiroto. “Hey Hiro, is the professor nearby?”

Hiroto was about to answer until the zombie professor showed up. Talk about timing, Lorelei said nothing but tossed the key down to him, telling him to make sure the professor touches it and he’ll return to normal. As Jasper said, no need to tell him twice.

Finally, everything was back to how it should be. Lorelei held onto Jasper and wiped at her eyes, he smiled and ruffled her hair, assuring her that everything’s fine. Looking up, he was face to face with the robed man and he immediately took a defensive stance as the man gave a slow clap once everyone was together and in the right state of mind. 

“I admit my defeat to you Lorelei.” He said softly.

“Your tests were something.” She admitted. “But you also helped with this.” She laid a hand over the puzzle. “One puzzle becomes two, it was like it knew I was going to need help tonight, the second holder was concerned for me, he’s a dear friend as well.” She looked up at him. “Seems like the power of the puzzle is Unity, what the fuck does your key grant you?”

Even as sentimental she still had a mouth of a sailor.

“Listen.” Jasper spoke up. “I don’t know what the fuck happened, but you clearly crossed some serious lines tonight; I suggest you leave before I take that key and ram it down your throat!”  
Another cryptid message from the robed man; both puzzle users may be the one to open the door. When did this become Kingdom Hearts? Whatever, Jasper wasn’t going to relax anytime soon tonight, he looked down at Lorelei who blinked up at him; she seemed different than before, what the heck changed?

*****

“And he tried to make you face a Xenomorph?” Jasper asked incredulously.

It’s been a few days since the night at the museum, and it’s been a few days that the two finally agreed to settle down and talk about it. They went out for some ice cream and were on the way home when Lorelei brought the topic up, she asked if he remembered anything prior to last night, when he confirmed he didn’t, she took it upon herself to tell him everything. It was actually the first time she was able to see what was happening when she wasn’t “there”. She now knew of the other entity within her, but she had yet to meet the ‘Other Lorelei’, all she knew is that she came out when someone needed to be tried and judged. Jasper felt a little relieved that they knew who to blame for the blackouts, but he was still freaked out that someone with the same magical item almost had him hanged, even more so his heart broke when she told him about the tests.

“Yeah, he was testing my heart…” she looked down. “Which…brings me to the final test, he used the bit of ‘darkness’ from your heart and…Jasper, do you hate my family?”

“I take it that ‘shadow me’ said some things?” He sighed and rubbed his face. “Okay, I’m not going to lie and say ‘no’, but I’m not going to say ‘yes’ either. I hate that they’re overachievers, I understand they want the best for you and I’m really happy we get to have a say in what activities we want to do, but I don’t like how it’s every other whatever we’re asked to do something. It’s suffocating, I sometimes feel like we don’t really have a childhood.”

She nodded and sighed. “Your parents are the same too.” She pointed out. “Summer camp or Latin 101. On the one hand, we had fun – I mean, who doesn’t love campfire songs, smores, and hiking? But as it was a science camp, I could make due without learning about microorganisms or whatever.”

“Guess both of our parents kind of suck, huh?” he nudged her. “But I am glad for one thing because of them; we grew up together and if we hadn’t met…your family wouldn’t have taken me to Las Vegas with you and I wouldn’t have Sally or the experience of the King Tut museum.”

“And I wouldn’t have experienced the Science Museum camp-in with your family.” She poked him. “Or see Phantom of the Opera live in New York.”

Jasper smiled and ruffled her navy-blue hair. “For you Lori, I will happily take kendo club if it means we get to hang out more.”

“And I will happily take Chess Club for you.” 

Darkness did exist in the hearts of many, but it took a brave heart to not succumb to it. Lorelei’s spirit friend had made that clear enough to Shadi. Was it a bit on the Kingdom Hearts side? Perhaps, but she had a feeling her little spirit friend watched the group play the games before the museum encounter (could she blame her?). The rest of the afternoon went by without a problem, they caught up with Yugi who was leaving an arcade and…they ran into Katsuya who was coming out of a flower shop and holding a giant teddy bear. Of course, Jasper teased him a little light-heartedly (“Aww Katsuya, you got me flowers”) but the two laughed it off. In fact, Katsuya invited them to come with him to the hospital, they were for someone there. The group agreed and they left together, and the afternoon got a whole lot brighter.

“Happy birthday, Shizuka, Katsuya couldn’t make it today, he got caught up in admiring a pretty person’s eyes.” Katsuya made the teddy bear say.

The girl with red hair laughed. “Aww, well I hope the pretty person is flattered.” She looked at the group. “Are those Katsuya’s friends?”

“Only Yugi and Jasper, Lorelei is a meanie who smacks Katsuya on the head daily.”

“Real mature Kit Kat.” Lorelei stuck her tongue out.

“Kit Kat?” 

“Yes, after the best chocolate bar in the world.” Lorelei smirked. “Plus, you really need to learn to give me a break, I only smacked you on the head once and that was because you were being mean to me.”

“Really? You have to bring that up in front of my sister.” He blushed, embarrassed.

Shizuka was laughing again. “I think we found our missing sister, Katsuya.” She smiled. “The way you two bounce off it’s like she could be related to us.”

“Which reminds me, Katsuya, you never mentioned a little sister before?” Yugi looked up at him.

“It’s…a long story, we’ll talk about that later.” Katsuya promised. “Right now, Shizuka should know the stars of the stories I tell her about.”

Jasper let out a sigh and smiled; he actually was relieved that they were finally having a calm and normal day for once in their life. And he got to meet Katsuya’s little sister, and even joined in on the story telling. He wasted no time in telling about how everyone became friends (Well, he left out a few details of course, there was no sense in worrying her about what happened in the past). He even confirmed a few of the stories Katsuya had told her; he was indeed an aspiring baker – and yes, he would definitely stop by tomorrow with something for her to try out, he and Lorelei did grew up together – the pictures he kept were proof of it, and yes he and Lori were one hell of a tag team duo. 

Yugi confirmed a few things as well; he was good at games but he wouldn’t consider himself a master gamer, he didn’t like confrontations and a character to best describe him would be Frisk from Undertale, actually he preferred puzzle games over anything else. He even offered to let her play a copy of a Professor Layton game, she kindly declined saying she wasn’t that great with puzzles. But she would like to try other games instead! Another thing he confirmed is that he did enjoy Egyptian Mythology and could recite the story of Ra by heart, that of course led to the question about the Millennium Puzzle; he had to deflect by saying he wasn’t sure about the story behind it, but once he had an idea she would be the first he’d tell!

Finally came to Lorelei; it was true she was into physical sports, but only because it brought about confidence, if anything she’d rather stay in the arts; she was in her school’s band and played the French Horn, she had high marks in choir (“No, I…it’s been a while since my choir days, I’m way out of practice for people to hear”), she loved any and all types of games and she likes to think of herself as the queen of Soul Calibur (“Shut up Jasper, the score is not tied between Yugi and I, I just threw him off the edge last week”) – heck, she was in the process of making a Cassandra costume for Halloween one year. She had her own goals; she wanted to be a writer, of course she was willing to make a compromise if it didn’t work out for her, what that backup idea was…she’ll let Shizuka know when she thought of it.

Katsuya was to the side watching as the four talked and got to know each other a lot more, Shizuka was smiling and that’s what made today even better. No more stressing about Ancient Egypt (He would tell Lorelei and Jasper what he and Yugi found out at a later time, right now, he just wanted everyone to have a calm day for once.), no stressing about school. Today was all about laughs and good times. He watched as Jasper was doing a card trick for her, he wasn’t sure what the trick was until he drew a card that said ‘What the Hell?’ it was one of those story tricks and it got Shizuka and Yugi laughing whereas Lori was groaning and holding her head at the show before her. He had to snicker at that, poor Jason Todd, she finally was taken down by a corny joke, he finally knew the girl’s kryptonite! He had to be honest, this was probably the best birthday for his sister out of all the years he’d been seeing her; and he wanted days like this to continue. His thoughts were interrupted when the nurse came in; Miyuki-san, she was a nice nurse, of course he’d only met her a handful of times but what he’d have seen of her she really did care for her and that was enough for his book. Heck, last time he came to visit he had come out of a scrap and she treated his wounds with no questions asked, other than ‘Please don’t worry your sister’. She was a great nurse, there was no lie about that. 

When the evening had came the quartet had left the hospital and returned back to the game shop. They agreed they would visit again tomorrow, after all, Jasper gave his word on delivering something sweet and he was a man of his word. And of course, a great chef was going to need a taste tester; and who was Katsuya to deny such a request? He followed Jasper into the kitchen and helped him set everything up for key lime pie, Katsuya was on the crust making duty while the other was on the filling making. While they did this, Yugi and Lorelei were in the next room booting up Catherine Full Body, they decided to finally sit down and play it together. Finally, Katsuya decided to break the ice to Jasper, though things were calm, they should get the rapids out of the way before another storm hits them.

“She’s actually going blind.” Katsuya sighed. “That’s not why she’s in the hospital right now, she’s had some bad health lately, but…things are clearing up. I think treatment is going smooth.”

“I’m sorry.” He laid a hand on his shoulder. “What does she have?”

“Just a bad immune system, she’s been in and out of the hospital a lot – even more so during flu season. But, as I said, she’s been getting treatment and soon she won’t be in that place anymore.” He tightened his hold on the rolling pin. 

“Let it out, it’s okay to worry about a loved one.” 

“I know…and that includes you.” He looked at him. “Hiroto said he saw you with a noose around your neck, you wanna explain that?”

Jasper flinched and quickly went back to the filling. “Look, we’ll talk about that later…Lori’s still shaken about that.”

Katsuya laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’m holding you to that.” He smiled. “Come on, we have pie duty to fulfil.”

The kitchen wasn’t the only place that was tensed that night, Yugi had asked about the museum to Lorelei and she nearly held the controller in a vice grip after remembering the incidents from that night. Yugi placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and tried to calm her down, quietly telling her that everything was going to be okay, it took her some time before she came back down to earth and smiled at him. A silent lie that everything was going to be okay.

“Please, take as long as you need to tell Katsuya and I.” he said gently.

“I will.” She promised. “So, what do you think of Shizuka-chan?” she asked. “She’s pretty cute.”

Yugi smiled. “She is and she’s a really nice girl, maybe when she’s better we can try and hang out some time?” he suggested. 

“It’s worth a try, we can ask Katsuya tomorrow!”

*****

“Your order, ma’am.” Jasper did a bow after setting the pie on the little fold-out table he brought. “One homemade key lime pie topped with…well now it’s weeping meringue, the only downside when putting warm meringue into the fridge, but I promise it’s still good to eat.”

Shizuka laughed and smiled. “It looks great, Jasper.” She assured, watching as Katsuya was handing out slices. “I can tell you put a lot of hard work into it.” 

She looked to the others that had came along; Hiroto, Anzu, and Miho. Her brother brought along the rest of his friends (“Of course, they’re only here because they caught wind of Jasper’s famous pastries”). They were so lively and it was great that he had some good friends, she knew living with dad wasn’t really ideal and she still wished that her mom took Katsuya with as well, but she was just glad that he had a group of friends to make things better. Today was just wonderful; nice weather, seeing her brother again with his friends, trying the legendary dessert that Katsuya would brag about (tart but sweet, she’d have to ask for another one before returning home), and seeing her favorite nurse join in for a quick bite before she had to make her rounds.

“Lorelei, did you bring music today?” Miho asked. “Usually dessert goes well with…oh who sings ‘Back to your Heart’? I know it’s a boyband…”

“Backstreet Boys.” Lorelei cleared up. “And no, it’s at home charging because I couldn’t sleep well last night. So, it was barely alive when morning came.” An idea came. “But I do have it and a few other songs on my phone if that’ll work?”

“That’ll work! And while, you children enjoy the treat and music, I’m going to get something from the vending machine in the waiting room for us to drink.” Jasper smiled and left the group.

Diet. Diet. Diet. Diet. 

Jasper just gagged at the selection before him. Of course, this was a hospital, they wouldn’t have the good stuff. With a sigh, he finally just went with bottles of water, he’d rather the group have something like coke or sprite but when options were limited, he had to go with the next best thing. He leaned on the machine and did a bit of people watching while waiting for the bottles to come out; what he saw were some interns talking over the coffee vending machine (lucky bastards, getting all the warm drinks), but what stood out to him the most was their conversation about the doctors of the world; from what he heard one of them wanted to work with Morgan Rowe – a renowned hematologist and part time blood spatter analysis, to which Jasper felt a heightened sense of pride when his family was talked about.

“Yeah, Dr. Goyu lost another one last night, shame too.” One of them said. “He seemed to be doing better too, it was a routine surgery, guess something went wrong.”

“This wouldn’t have happened under Dr. Rowe’s care.” Another muttered. “He’d made sure that the surgery was a success, but oh no, the poor guy had to have Doctor Golfs-a-lot!” he turned to his partner. “And you know the next patient of his is Kawai-san, she’s not going to last the night with him!”

Wait. Goyu? As in…Kekeru Goyu? 

Jasper felt his heart sink, deciding to ignore the water bottles for the time being he rushed back outside and went up to Lorelei, moving her away from the others so they could talk in private. If this was the same doctor, he thinks it is (and he hated himself for being right) then Lori needed to know.

“Jasper what the hell?” she demanded. “What’s wrong?”

“Lori, remember that one doctor your aunt destroyed in court?” he asked.

“You need to be more specific, Jasper. Which doctor?”

“Goyu.” Jasper says, almost like the death toll of a bell.

Lorelei fell silent and narrowed her eyes. “The same Goyu who had numerous complaints about ‘harassment’ of nurses?” her voice was icy.

“The very same.” He nodded. “He’s here now, and alongside his usual sleazeball routine, he’s still neglecting patients.”

And just like that, the spirit had come out for another Shadow Game. Jasper grabbed her wrist before she could head inside the hospital for one of her games.

He made her turn so they were eye to eye. “Look, I know you aren’t Lori, and I know I can’t stop you and honestly I don’t want to stop you – this man deserves it. But please, please let me do it.” He relaxed his grip. “He’s Shizuka’s doctor and I don’t want her hurt by that man – that maggot, please!”

She gave him a Cheshire grin. “That is quite the offer you’re asking of me, Jasper.” She purred. “But, seeing as you are this girl’s best friend, who am I to deny your request. Go have fun now, and I’ll handle the messy details.”

  
*

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, it’s days like this where children should be out and enjoying ice cream. If this were America that is. Jasper dragged himself out of bed and got dressed in his uniform, today was the day they would be getting their results in and he wasn’t really excited to see them – actually, nobody was excited to see those results. He still had painful flashback to Contest, the one event where schools hosted a choir contest each round; Midwich High School was the semi-final round and for a soloist to advance to the next round they had to score a perfect, his heart sank remembering Lorelei’s reaction to the news; she got an Excellent, it was one tier below perfect. All that hard work and her rendition of Habanera didn’t make it past the quarter-finals.

“Jasper?” Lorelei walked in. “I know that look, you’re thinking about Contest, aren’t you?”

“You can thank the test scores for that, and we haven’t even seen the results yet.” He ruffled her hair. “You’re not going to be heartbroken again, are you?”

“I gave up on those tests eons ago.” She smirked. “I still perform well to be in the B honor roll, that’s all I care about. Everything else, fuck it.”

“Ah I see you are already in the senior mindset, well into our first year here no less, must be a new record” Jasper joked, nudging the other in the shoulder, which was met with the perfect gift of a middle finger, “Still let’s get Yugi up, I swear it must be embarrassing to have the transfer students living with you to be ready before you”

The good news, he was already awake. The weird news, he had his socks on the floor and he was sitting in a meditative pose. Jasper was going to call it right now; something was going to happen at school today and another shadow game was going to happen and then Lorelei is going to get possessed again and someone is most likely going to fucking die! Taking a deep breath, he settled his nerves; this is fine, Yugi’s done some weird morning rituals before, this is probably part of that ritual and there was nothing going on. Nothing was going to happen, it’s just going to be a normal school day, they were going to get their results, celebrate with burgers, and then they were going to play Murdered: Soul Suspect as a group. Everything was going to work out fine.

“Yugi, what are you doing?” He asked calmly. “Is this some morning ritual of yours?”

“Sort of, I’m testing my sixth sense!”

“And does this test involve you about to run late?” Jasper asks, again, clearly a bit on edge if the past few weeks would go by, I mean, he saw his teacher’s face fall off! He saw another guy fried alive! Of course, he’s on edge!

Yugi paled after hearing that and after having found his first matching pair. The trio rushed out of the building and caught up with Anzu for school. On the way there, she gave the trio a little keychain called a love finder; Yugi typed his info in and hoped it would ring with Anzu’s (no such luck just yet…maybe the battery was low?) Lorelei said she was going to keep hers for later and try to find someone along the way, and Jasper…he kindly declined; he didn’t need a love finder to know where his heart lied. The rest of the morning lectures went without a problem and by the time the bell rang for break everyone was rushing to see the numbers, to Jasper’s left were Yugi, Katsuya, and Hiroto playing ‘Achievement Bingo’ to his right was Lorelei looking for her name. She grinned and clapped in glee; number 13, lucky thirteen! She was in the top twenty and she was perfectly fine with that. Miho was cheering with Anzu and Jasper as they saw their numbers (Anzu was at the top sitting at number two, Miho with five, and Jasper with nine). Hanasaki was blushing a little embarrassed by his score, but muttered to himself about studying a little harder. While this was going on, Jasper and Lorelei had their own sheets with the Achievement Score bingo game in progress; he had all five rows covered while she only had one row completed. He grinned and held them over to Yugi with an innocent look, Lorelei looked over and snickered with a devious grin on her face.

“WHAT THE HELL!? IT’S COMPLETELY FILLED!” Katsuya yelled. “Hacks! I’m calling hacks!”

“How would I hack a pen and paper game?” Jasper challenged. 

“I don’t know, but you did!” he pouted. “Full page filled, unbelievable.” 

“Quit complaining and start ordering those fiver burgers.” 

“Having fun, are we?” came a teacher’s voice.

Shit. Tsuruoka, the guidance consoler. They got caught up in checking out scores and making a betting game that they had forgotten that bastard was around. He was almost like Chono-sensei, except he doesn’t expel you if you so much as sneeze in his direction. No, he just talked down to you and treated you like you were a brainless sponge if you didn’t make it in the top twenty. And true to his form, he pointed out the low scores that Katsuya (392), Hiroto (380), and Yugi (372) had, Jasper and Lori winced when he pointed those scores out; on one hand they could have used the weird shit that’s been happening to them as an excuse as to why studying wasn’t an option, but Lorelei was number 13 and she played a life or death game with some weirdo in a white robe!

To make matters worse, he caught sight of the two heart keychains from Lorelei and Yugi’s shirt pocket. It was one mess after another; The Other Lori decided to show up as did the Other Yugi. It was rare to see both of them out at the same time, Jasper made a mental note to make sure they don’t come out together like this more often. The game was simple enough, the group had thirty minutes to find the keychain games and they’ll be fine. Thus, began the search, Katsuya and Hiroto offered to bring out some digging supplies – that was shot down by Yugi who had confirmed that the teacher didn’t leave the building. They tried everything so far; lockers, desks, everywhere! They had only twenty minutes left to find the gift Anzu had given them.

Wait.

Jasper and Anzu shared a glance to each other and nodded before handing theirs over to the duo. They just had to get the wavelength to chime; of course, that was easier said than done. Even if they got the chime there was the chance the Love Testers were hell and gone from where they were. The dawn of realization blessed everyone right there and then; if someone were to hide something, they’d want to be within eye-sight of the hiding spot. A collective face palm was seen among them. Of course, where does a teacher put things they confiscate? 

“Let’s…Let’s just all agree the events of today didn’t happen.” Jasper muttered.

“I can get behind that.” Katsuya groaned. “Let’s just get this game over with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All according to Kekeru


	7. Bombs and Meeting Ryou

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Singing as I post this* Combining two Manga chapters, dododo, we're all tired duelists~

_Dear Dad and Mr. Royal,_   
_So, I’m just going to get right into this; Lorelei is possessed by some ancient spirit. Now, before any of you start packing your bags and flying down here for a traditional exorcism, the spirit is actually pretty chilled. I’ve actually spoken to ‘her’ and it seems like she just wants to keep Lorelei and her friends safe, I’m still keeping my eye on her – it’s not that I don’t trust her intentions, I just don’t want this spirit to be going overboard with the protection stuff. There was one incident where some guy was stealing monster fighter stuff from other students and reselling them; he died of a heart attack (though knowing this ‘other Lori’ I have my doubts.) On the bright side of things, she did let me perform justice on that horrible doctor, Kekeru Goyu (Sparing the details but I promise, I just played the game and she just did…whatever to him. I’m innocent, I swear!)_

_So, let’s talk about Domino; I swear this place is becoming a hotspot for the weird and unexplained, I am almost certain that Bigfoot is going to show up and do the Macarana in town square. So, in follow up to our previous letter some notable things include; some weirdo being obsessed with clocks like the Clock King, so like before with the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi went into some weird trance or whatever and the end result was the guy not only going insane but…you remember those crazy red-eyes from Thomas Mutton? Replace those with clocks. And if that wasn’t bad enough, apparently Seto is still pissed about Yugi kicking his ass that he sent different ‘game masters’ after him (one of them had a fucking tiger! How did that bitch bring a tiger through customs? What the hell did I miss?). Finally, there was this kid who had those cursed dragon cards (I know what Mr. Royal is thinking, and I don’t blame him. How? Why? Who let this kid have them?) We all know the stories so I’m sparing the details other than Yugi survived and that this kid died._

_Speaking of Yugi; now I’m not sure what happened, but from what I’m understanding from Anzu, Yugi, Hiroto, and Katsuya…Seto Kaiba decided to build a theme park of death and kidnapped Mr. Mutou. The end results; Seto is now in a shock induced coma. Everyone is fine…sort of. We’re all home, we’re all safe (so far, I swear I am taking a kitchen knife for defense), and we’re about to head to the local amusement park for a little waterslide fun. Fingers crossed that today will go by smooth._

_Going back to Lorelei for a brief minute, she made another friend! His name is Hanasaki and the two of them are adorable when they gush about superheroes (Of course, don’t get them started on Robins, Lori was close to jumping across the table to defend Jason Todd). The two met after getting bullied by some metal head, needless to say that ‘other Lori’ took care of him and now Hanasaki is part of the group (He’s been a major help with Arkham Asylum!)_

_Well, aside from that, nothing much happened. Oh, except I almost died, but Lori saved me so it’s okay! Well time for summer fun, love you!_

_Love_   
_Jasper_

Sealed and stamped and ready to be sent. Jasper stood up and stretched as he made his way to the living room where the rest of the group was, well, everyone except for Lorelei and Yugi; Lori was still in their room and was currently getting ready still. He had a feeling that she was working on a way to communicate with the spirit that resided within the puzzle, as for Yugi, he wasn’t sure what the holdup was but he had a feeling it was the same thing actually. No big deal, they weren’t really in a rush since the buses were delayed due to some trouble in the area. Still, after everything that has been happening to the group, he couldn’t help but feel on edge whenever something wrong was happening, no matter how small the incident was; the moment something went wrong his mind immediately went to a shadow game about to happen. Actually, this time it made him laugh as he just imagined the Other Lori challenging the bus system to a shadow game. Of course, just to be safe, he decided to go and check on the duo before anything serious happens; there was seriously no need to start up a shadow game this early in the morning.

His prayers were answered! She and Yugi came out in summer wear; Lorelei was in a black halter dress decorated with cherries, she had a cherry clutch in her hand and sandles, along with a pair of sunglasses. Yugi was just in a white shirt and jeans. He couldn’t help but to chuckle at the simplicity of their choices before walking out with the group. In all honesty, this summer day out was definitely what they needed; he was getting sick and tired of seeing Lorelei’s and Yugi’s spirit friend causing people to go insane or just outright killing them, it wasn’t right – even though some people did in fact deserved it, it still wasn’t right to play judge, jury, and executioner (Hell, Two-face was a prime example of what happened when those three got together!) But aside from that, things had been quiet since Yugi returned from facing against the Kaiba brothers again, he was just glad they could finally breathe for once. And that led them to the now, they were at the amusement park and everyone was doing their own thing; Jasper stuck with Yugi, Lori, and Anzu as they went off to the waterpark section first, well…he, Yugi, and Anzu did, Lorelei just stayed back on the loungers with a book.

“Seriously Lori, we’re here to have summer fun and you’re going to read His Immortal Embrace?” Jasper sighed.

“You know I hate public pools.” Lorelei stuck her tongue out. “Besides, you know you love it…hot vampire lover.” She teased. “Of course, I think you prefer your vampires if they were blond…have beautiful amber eyes…and is a devoted older brother.”

“Jerk.” Jasper muttered as he got into the pool. “One of these days Royal, I will get back at you!”

“Keep dreaming Jasper!”

Jasper shook his head; he knew Lori had a preference when it came to guys; she will immediately go for the biker boys. Granted, she wouldn’t immediately jump at the first guy that rode up to her – she had better class than that, but that didn’t really stop her from admiring from afar. Unfortunately, that dating pool here is extremely slim, but like Lori, Jasper was a determined one, he was going to find her a boy and he was going to tease her every step of the way. He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Yugi and Anzu cheer after reaching the bottom of the slides for a second or third time, he waved at them and they made their way over to dry in the sun – and, even though Jasper preferred guys, Anzu’s swimsuit did look amazing on her. No wonder Yugi was a blushing mess, could he blame him? Of course not, he would be a blushing mess if he saw Katusya – no! stop, stop. Stop. Now was not the time to be thinking about that, Lori was looking over with that teasing grin of hers. The score was now; Lorelei – 1001, Jasper – 1000. 

With everyone dried and dressed it was now time to check out the rides. Roller coasters, the carousel (Jasper dragged the group on that multiple times), bumper cars (score now stands Lori – 1001, Jasper – 1001), everything was going well for the group. When it came time for lunch, everyone except Lori, Miho, Anzu, and Hanasaki were together in the park center enjoying some food, it was supposed to be a bit of a peaceful time had the cops not entered the square and talking with the amusement park owner; that feeling of dread had returned in his heart. Oh lord…no. no, no, no, please no! Not another Shadow Game appearing! Without so much of a thought, he got up and went over to the officers in question soon after the park was evacuated, the only difference is – out of the many rides that were shut down, there was only one in operation and the ride operator couldn’t get it to stop or to let the riders off. Well fuck. This wasn’t good at all.

“Hey kid, are you good at any card games?” an officer asked.

“Yeah?” Jasper looked to the group and motioned Yugi over. “But uh he’s better at them than I am, why what’s wrong?”

“The Card Bomber hacked the Ferris wheel’s controls and placed bombs in the cars.”

Fuck him sideways with a pitchfork. To make it even harder; it turns out the cars 1,3, and 13 still had people in them. Silently he took his phone out and sent a text to Lorelei, asking her if she was still in the amusement park; she was and was sitting with Anzu, Hanasaki, and Miho on the Ferris Wheel. His heart sank further as he and Yugi shared a look, the Other Yugi had come out to play as he took the phone from the officer; the Card Bomber had called and issued a challenge – Clock Solitaire, they had to draw from the center to start the game and make a clock face; four cards on one branch would make the “o clock”. It was just a simple game, a simple game of death that is. And wouldn’t you know it, the first face the duo made was Four o clock. 

Car number four exploded.

“Jesus!” Jasper backed from the game and held his head. “Okay, so each time we make a face…a car with that number explodes; we have three cars with people at risk of dying.”

“And…he’s watching us play somewhere.” Yugi finished for him as he made the Eight o clock face.

Car number eight was no more.

“Just focus on getting the thirteen-o clock face, I’ll…see if I can’t find where our bomber is hiding.”

Jasper moved from the scene and walked around trying to limit the choices of a high point; roller coasters were too fast; the power tower didn’t give you time to admire the view before dropping you. His eyes lit up as he picked up his phone again, dialing Lori’s number, it was a longshot but it was still something he had to consider.

“Hey Lori, it’s me.”

“I was wondering when you were going to call.” Came that smooth chilling voice. 

“Oh…it’s the Other Lori.” He shuddered. “Listen, can you look out the window and tell me if you see Yugi playing cards?”

“Yes, I can see him playing cards.” She confirmed. “And he just finished the Two o clock face.”

There was a sound of explosion.

“And that would be the car below us.” Her fingers tapping was heard. “I don’t wish to rush you boys, but…do try and hurry to end the game soon.”

“You just helped us out big time. Just…keep the others calm?”

“What do you think I’ve been doing up here? Playing Animal Crossing?” she huffed. “Go and help Yugi, we’ll be in touch.”

“And what the hell do you think I’m doing? Playing Tomodachi Life? I’m trying to see where the bomber is spying on us, but all the other high points are all too fast or too low!” Jasper was looking at the cars themselves, he saw a shadow Lorelei holding her phone, a shadow of a couple holding each other, and…a shadow in 13 looking calm as ever. “Hold on, I’ll be back…I think I found something.”

He hurried to Yugi’s side just as he made the Thirteen o clock face, ending the game and saving everyone in time (in less than ten seconds to add to the pressure). The look both boys shared was enough, Yugi gave Jasper a nod and went up to the authorities before nodding to car number thirteen where their ‘friend’ was, informing the authorities that the bomber was lurking on the Ferris Wheel – it was the only ride slow enough and high enough to see what cards were being played so they could blow up the corresponding cars. So much for Lucky Thirteen.

 *****  
With school back in session, it wasn’t long before the buzz about a new student filled the room. Both Jasper and Lorelei heaved a sigh of relief, they wouldn’t have to deal with the title of being the new kids anymore! Of course, this meant that they would have to keep those overzealous girls away from the new kid (as far as Lori is concerned, one of those girls has a collection of all the pens she had lost over the year…she was pretty certain there were some hidden camera shots of Jasper floating around in their lockers.) Still, they were pretty excited in meeting this new person, which wouldn’t be a long wait as their new homeroom teacher came in with the student in tow. Long white hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a pale complexion; when he introduced himself that British accent came out. Oh god, be still their beating hearts – Lorelei and Jasper vowed that this boy was going to need protecting in this school.

The new student, Ryou, was seated between her and Katsuya. As soon as the teacher’s back was turned and lessons began, she immediately passed him a note that simply read ‘Hi!’ he smiled and gave a small wave to her. With the bell ending the lecture for lunch period, the group moved their desks into a circle and invited him to join them, the sweet smile he had was enough to make everyone smile back, he was welcomed into a friend group so quick and was able to get to know everyone with little to no problem. 

“And finally, you have our two former new students; Lorelei and Jasper. They live with Yugi in his family’s game shop and they used to have the mantle of the new kids before you showed up.” Katsuya introduced. “Also beware, Lori does pack a mean punch, she slammed my head into the desk on her first day here.”

“Only because you tried to bully Yugi.” Jasper pointed out.

“And you were pretty sexist to Lori.” Anzu added.

“Just because I made the comment of her breaking a nail, doesn’t make it a sexist remark.” Katsuya huffed.

Lorelei looked up from her lunch – a beef bao bun – and narrowed her eyes at Katsuya. “Kit Kat…You’re in arms reach of me.” She warned.

Ryou laughed and covered his mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh, but the way you bounce off each other is just so fun to watch.”

Miho smiled and patted his back. “That’s what hanging out with Lori will do to you.” She smiled proudly. “She and Jasper are a fun duo and you’re guaranteed a good time with them! They’ve introduced us to games like Sally Face!”

“That sounds amazing.” Ryou looked down a little. “But, I’m actually more for tabletop games like Monster World.”

That got everyone’s attention. Discussion went from introduction over to Monster World and other tabletop games, Ryou couldn’t help but to have a slight downcast look from the conversation; while the others had their own stories when it came to multi-player role-playing games, his was actually rather grim…but he didn’t really want to scare them away on day one with this story. He forced himself to look anywhere else and found himself locking eyes with the two gold puzzles that Lorelei and Yugi wore, perfect! A new conversation topic.

“Those two pendants you’re wearing, wherever did you get them?” Ryou inquired.

“Oh these?” Yugi looked down. “It’s actually a weird story, see…originally it was one big puzzle, but after Lori and I solved it together it glowed and became two smaller ones.” He held his. “It only joined once before and we’re still not sure what caused it.”

Lorelei took hers off and held it to him. “You can look at it.” She smiled.

“Wow…” Ryou held it and looked it over. “It’s beautiful, it almost reminds me-” His words were cut off by a sharp pain, wincing as he shrunk in himself.

All eyes of concern were on him, Jasper stood and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, are you okay Ryou?”

“I’m…fine.” He handed Lorelei the puzzle back. “My chest just…hurts a little.”

Jasper nodded and gently pulled him up. “Come on, let me take you to the school nurse.” He started to lead him out. “Besides, someone has to keep you safe from the overzealous ladies of this school, this is coming from someone with experience.”

“Thank you, Jasper.”

The two walked down the halls in silence until they got to the nurse’s office. For the time being she was out of the room, they did what they were supposed to – sign in and wait patiently for her return. Ryou was sitting on one of the nearby cots with Jasper sitting in a chair next to him. The two carried on their conversation about games and the strange puzzles; while Jasper was pretty vague about them in telling his new friend where they came from and how Yugi and Lorelei got their hands on it, Ryou was …well, there were gaps in his story. He took out a similar pendant to theirs; the only difference was it was a ring with five spikes around the bottom and the Eye of Horus sitting pretty in the center of a triangle. According to Ryou, his father got it while in Egypt and visiting a merchant’s table.

“Okay, that’s not ominous at all.” Jasper muttered to himself as he noticed some circular scars showing from where Ryou opened his shirt to take the pendant out. He made the mental note to tell Lori later.

“You know something about my ring?” Ryou asked.

There was something about the way he asked that set Jasper off. He’s seen the other Lori and other Yugi so he knows when a spirit was taking over, but…there was nothing standing out here. Well no, there was, the way Ryou asked it was…it was his voice but it felt like someone else was asking.

“No, but…I just feel like it’s weird that your dad found the ring in a bazaar.” He said carefully. “Like the guy he might have bought it from was someone that deals in the black market?”

“Oh…” he looked down. “I guess I can see where you’re coming from with that.”

“There’s something else that’s bothering you, isn’t there?”

He hated being right. Ryou confirmed that there was something, but he wasn’t feeling up to sharing it at the moment, but he did promise that he would tell him after school. Jasper nodded and left him to rest as the nurse came in to tend to him. He couldn’t really place it, but he had this eerie feeling that tonight that puzzle was going to join as one again.

*****

“You know what I love?” Jasper asked as he watched Katsuya trying to cut the rope from Lorelei’s neck. “I love how the puzzle decided to not only rejoin as one, but also glue itself to Lori’s neck.”

“How about you stop with the sassing and help with the cutting.” Katsuya snapped. “Seriously what the hell is this?” he tossed his pocket knife to the bed. “Lori, do you trust me with a lighter?”

She shoved him away. “Like fucking hell you’re putting an open flame by me.”

“So either murder key guy is back, or it’s Kaiba with a murder park again. I swear, why can’t we go one week without someone trying to kill us for that thing? Or revenge? Or just because it’s a day ending in ‘y’” Jasper sighed and looked over the puzzle to see exactly how it was stuck. “Yeah, no use in using flames. It’s grafted on her skin…like melded into it.”

“Jesus!” Lorelei pulled away from him, eyes wide in fear. “Spirit, there better be a good fucking reason for this!”

The soft glow took over and instead of the fearful teen, there was an…agitated teen.

“Okay Other Lori.” Jasper held her shoulders firm. “Just so you know, I’m not above punching my friend’s body if it means you get hurt.” He warned. “Start talking, why the fuck is you gluing that thing to her?”

“Stand down.” She ordered. “This is not my doing or the Other’s doing, if I had to guess the power that resides here can sense if our hosts are in grave danger. Well, more so than being threatened with a bomb or some gang with yoyos.” She laid a hand on her puzzle. “Similar to with Shadi, my guess is that there’s another Millennium Item that is threatening her.”

“But why her?” Yugi demanded. “Why would people be after her? We both solved the puzzle, why is it she’s in more danger than I?”

“And who the hell is this Other?” Katsuya asked. “The Other Yugi? You two met?”

“Sort of.” She nodded. “We found a way to talk and… he’s been doing something that’s shielding Yugi from the other Millennium holders. I don’t know what power he’s using, but I know that unlike him…I’m nowhere near that experience, I’m sorry but Lorelei is in danger because I don’t have a way to shield her like the Other does for Yugi.”

“So, what do we do now?” Jasper asked. “Just sit around and wait for whatever is after Lori to attack us?”

She smacked him upside the head. “Don’t be stupid.” A grin formed on her face. “ _We_ are going after _them_.” She cleared up.

“Got any idea about the next holder?” Katsuya asked. “Or even how you’re going to track them down?”

“Um…I may know who it is, but…I dunno.” Jasper spoke up in a nervous tone.

“What do you mean?” Yugi asked.

“I don’t think he knows what the item he has is.” He finally said. “Like…remember when you two first got the puzzle and you were unaware of the spirits inside? It’s like that. I think Ryou may be the one in danger.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FAQ: Why is Lorelei the target of Shadow Games: So, the Yami that my partner and I gave to Lorelei is Atem's younger twin sister (Atem is older by an hour). While the Prince/Pharaoh is more skilled in shadow Magic, Other Lori is not. She is more skilled in the physical department. And if you look at the shadow games in the manga, most of them are pretty fucking physical. So, Atem has more of a chance to shield Yugi from other Millennium Item holders than Other Lori is. 
> 
> In short: Other Lori can't do magic as well. Her host is in danger because of this.


	8. Monster World

Another night, another Millennium Meeting. The original idea was to contain it between Yugi, Jasper, Lorelei, Hiroto, and himself; but after the bombshells that had been hitting them since the Kaiba Land incident; they had the whole group with them – including Miho and Hanasaki. So, like before, the group had Mr. Mutou’s old study occupied and a corkboard markerboard set up alongside the books they’ve pulled out. The layout was simple enough; Miho and Hanasaki would be by the door to see if Mr. Mutou was nearby (thankfully, he was still downstairs minding the shop), while the others had their notes and pictures.

So, what do they know so far? The Millennium Items were part of a set; the only known ones are the Puzzle, Scales, Key, and now a possible ring. Each of them had their own powers, and right now it is unknown if there are more or what happens if someone were to possess every one of them. They’re old as fuck, and that was really all they knew. The current books they had only briefly mentions them, and any archaeology notes on them were faded with time and hard to find any other form of notes online (and frankly, Katsuya had too much pride to ask Mokuba to look on the shady side of the net for them). This just led them to a dead end in their research. Which, unfortunately, brought them up to the current discussion; what the fuck do they do now? Where the fuck do they go from here?

“Let’s talk about the ring for a minute?” Anzu spoke up. “Jasper, you’ve been around Ryou a little longer than we have, did you notice anything odd?”

He nodded. “You know how a ventriloquist doll works right?” he watched as the others nod. “Okay, so…I brought up how it was pretty ominous that Ryou’s father got the ring from a merchant in a bazaar, after doing so he asked if I knew about his ring. Now, on the surface, it doesn’t seem like much because he sounded like he always did.”

“But it sounded like someone was actually controlling him?” Lorelei asked.

“Yes and no; yes, someone made him ask me about the ring, but it was still his doing. It’s why I said before that I don’t think Ryou is aware that there’s someone lurking in the shadows.”

And another note to add to the corkboard, Katsuya pinned the note next to the ring and tapped his arm in thought. “Let’s take a step back for a second and treat this like we would a normal ghost; Red Hood, Jasper, what do you usually do in cases of hauntings?”

The two looked over with a slight annoyed expression; there were a handful of ways in dealing with the supernatural and most of them were common herbs anyone could get at either the grocery store, green house, or in the wild. Salt, rosemary, clovers, sachets, the list goes on. Already, Katsuya was making out a shopping list; they had one thing to use – get the ring away from Ryou and trap that thing in a purifying barrier…now how the hell do they get close enough to get the ring away from him? These past few days, while Ryou did hung out with them, he kept a distance from them. As of now, the only idea brewing is to drop by out of the blue and corner him; the only way for that plan to work is if they knew where he lived – fortunately, there was a perk to having someone on the student council and that was to get access to students’ addresses to drop homework off. Now they just need a team to go in.

“I’ll go.” Lorelei spoke up. “I have the means of defense, and it will be me that the possible spirit will be after.”

“If you’re going, I’m going.” Jasper spoke up. “I’m not letting you go in there alone.”

“Let’s make it even, Miho and I will join you.” Hanasaki spoke up. “I…I know I’m not entirely the strongest like Katsuya or Hiroto, but I still want to help you!”

“This will be a dangerous mission.” Anzu told him, “Are you certain, we won’t think less of you two if you want to stay and be part of the research team.”

Miho gave a thumbs up. “I have some protection charms we could use! We’ll be fine!”

Those were the final words that ended the meeting for the day, and the start of things to come. The next day at school, news about Karita-sensei was flooding the halls. Apparently last night he was found on the school grounds unconscious and unresponsive, it didn’t take long for the group to put two and two together that the gym teacher was no more and if they weren’t suspecting a certain ring, they would have believed that Shadi had returned. Karita’s death mimicked the Kanekura’s in some similarity. Still, even as corrupt as he was – and this is the same school that had Chono-sensei and Jasper was amazed that she didn’t fade in the similar fashion (he was still bitter about her threatening him on his first day about his hair color as well as some distasteful words about him that would be impolite to repeat). School was uneasy the rest of the day, Lorelei kept passing notes over to Ryou to check on him, he just read them and gave thumbs up with a pained smile – he was clearly not okay. After school was another story all together, they had to wait for a while before showing up out of the blue as planned, Jasper had offered the team should make character sheets for the time being and it worked; they had a Fighter, a Monk, a Warlock, and a Bard, a nice little assortment for today’s game.

The arrival to Ryou’s place was another sensation, both Jasper and Lorelei were nervous – and with good reason, there was a chance that Lorelei was going to be in severe danger! Miho was holding her lucky rabbit’s foot close to her chest and steadied her breathing and Hanasaki was playing with a Magic 8 ball. Jasper just took one look at the two and inwardly paled, they were going to die. The four of them were going to die and that was going to be the end of things. Pushing the negative thoughts aside, he rang the doorbell to Ryou’s apartment and stood back with the group; deep breaths now, they were armed with purifying charms, they got this under control.

Opening the door was Ryou, a sharp smile on his face. “Oh! Jasper, Lorelei, Miho, Hanasaki, what a surprise! Please come inside!”

The puppet master finally made his appearance. It wasn’t that hard for Jasper to catch on, he saw the subtle changes when Kage came out to play so he knew what to look for when the puppet master showed up; sharper points to his hair, dangerous smile, and the subtle eye color change – chocolate brown turned into rusty brown. Well, no…they were more of rusted blood color. If he had to guess, the spirit probably had blood red eyes back when it was still alive.

“I’m so glad you were able to show up, pardon for not inviting you sooner, I wanted to make sure everything was set up for us.” Ryou let them walk around the living room. “Please, do make yourself feel at home.”

“Thank you for having us, and we’re sorry for showing up out of the blue like this, but you’ve been pretty upset lately and we wanted to check on you.” Lorelei bowed a little. “We know what it’s like, changing new schools, having new teachers, it’s all pretty overwhelming and we wanted to do whatever we could in helping you get adjusted to Domino High School.”

“Exactly!” Miho took his hands into hers, she slightly shuddered…his hands were…ice cold. “We’re your friends and as friends we help each other.”

“You’re so sweet, Miho-chan. I don’t know what I’d do without you and the others.” Ryou pulled away. “Now then, follow me to the game room; I have the character sheets ready for you to fill out.”

“Funny you should mention that.” Jasper took out four sheets of paper. “We went ahead and made everything except the stats, we hope that’s fine.”

Ryou was taken by surprised and took them, he looked them over and narrowed his eyes slightly at the classes before him. Was that…disappointment on his face? The look faded back to that sweet smile from earlier as he moved to the miniature set and started to work on them. With him distracted, it was enough for Jasper and Lorelei to sign over to Miho and Hanasaki.

<< Okay, so…before you is our friend possessed. >> Jasper started. <<If you two wish to back out now, better start making an excuse fast.>>

Miho shook her head no. <<We were tasked to get the ring away from him! We’re not backing out now!>>

<<Problem, I don’t see him wearing any kind of jewelry!>> Hanasaki had a slight panic to his signs.

<<Guys, settle down>> Lorelei scolded. <<Freaking out is not going to help us, we need to stall in the game…Let me handle this, I’ve pissed off enough dungeon masters back in the states>>

“And here we are, one set of heroes painted and ready to play.” Ryou handed everyone their characters. “Stats are in the computer, the board is set, and the game can begin.”

It took a little convincing from Lorelei to get Ryou to agree in side quests to level their characters up, her excuse was flawless in logic; just because she and Jasper were naturals at the game didn’t mean Miho and Hanasaki were the same. So, they were sitting pretty at level five and they were back on the main quest, they went back to what the bar tender (that suspiciously looked like their deceased gym teacher) had told them and went to explore for anything that could help them against the Dark Master himself, Zorc. All the while they were playing and slashing at monsters, Jasper would take side glances to Ryou…or rather, The Puppet Master, nothing had changed; the sharp points in his white hair were the same and the rusted blood eyes were still honed in on them. With each success in the monster battle, his eyes would narrow and a sneer would grow; either they were on the right track with their strategy in leveling up their abilities to have a fighting chance or they were having insane luck with Miho beside them and her rabbit’s foot…He’ll take both. The ring had to be on him, but it wasn’t like he could jump across the table and pin the Puppet Master down to yank the pendant off, they don’t even know what kind of powers he had. Right now, the group just silently agreed to continue playing the game as normal until they had some kind of opening.

The Puppet Master was growing more and more agitated with each successful roll of the dice. He had suspect magic of some kind was being used, it wasn’t the girl’s puzzle; no…The puzzle and its powers weren’t that benevolent, after all the ring was just as wicked so why should the puzzle be any different? No…He sensed it coming from that damn Monk before him, so…good luck charms eh? Now that he knew what was blocking his successful rolls, it was time to change the rules of the game and start reclaiming his position of power as their dungeon master. And he had the perfect trap set up; a wounded figure laid in the path of the heroes, they went up and checked to see if they were okay. Oh, the poor soul was fine, but a holy sword was stolen and he begged the heroes for help! Well, of course the group agreed to, the promise of a weapon to take down the Dark Master himself was a tempting offer…too bad it was fake and they were faced to face with powerful monsters. Now the fun could truly begin, now that the monsters were taken care of and Zorc made his grand appearance, it was time to take care of that pesky monk and her rabbit charm.

00

“A super critical.” He chuckled. “How unfortunate for you, Zorc’s Shadow Power assaults the players, specifically _**you**_ Miho.” 

Before anyone could react, the girl was laying face down on the table. Jasper rushed over and moved her to a full sitting position; she was limp and still as ever. A pulse was there, but she was unresponsive, he was pulled away from her when he and the others had heard a shrill shriek from the gameboard. Slowly, he turned and saw the figure of the Kalashtar Monk move on its own…Miho was in the figurine of her character! The rest of the heroes were frozen from the sight and even more so at the Puppet Master’s wicked grin on his face.

“Such a shame, she had all the good rolls too.” He taunted. “But alas, she was actually quite the hinderance, if she kept up her critical streak you would have gained more powerful spells and weapons.” 

“What did you do to her!” Hanasaki demanded. “Bring her back right now!”

“That would be against the rules my dear fighter.” Ryou shook his head. “As the Dungeon Master I am to follow the rules laid out to continue on the game.” He narrowed his eyes at him. “I hope you’re aware that the game you’re playing now is the Ultimate Roleplaying Game.”

A Shadow Game. Both Jasper’s and Lorelei’s heart had sank at that, they’ve been through enough of those to know what was at stake, and they couldn’t afford to lose this game now that they know the ring’s power could steal the souls of a living person and imprison them into things like a figurine. Mouths were dried, hearts were racing, they reluctantly sat back down and awaited the next call from the dungeon master so they could find an exploitive weak point…at least that was the plan. Hanasaki had other plans when he grabbed the dice despite the protests from Lorelei and Jasper, cursing out Zorc as he threw the dice to the table

99\. A Fumble.

“Ah, ah, ah, it wasn’t your turn.” Ryou’s wicked grin grew. “But you were another thorn to my side, I believe this penalty game is just perfect for you!”

And just like Miho, Hanasaki was slumped into the chair and against the table. The Gnome Fighter was beside the Monk as a living figurine, and all that was left were the two friends and a harsh warning; if either of the two were to become miniatures, the game would end and the Dungeon Master would be victorious. Wait…No. No, that wouldn’t be the case at all; they had a secret weapon to keep the game going if such a tragedy would befall them. Jasper looked to Lorelei and gave a small smile; they were pros at this game! Lorelei was known to piss off dungeon masters with her insane and clever moves (hell, one move solved a murder mystery with the unconventional use of skeleton bone dust!) and Jasper was known for his witty charisma to get information needed. They had everything under control.

“It’s your turn, Bard.” Ryou smirked. “The Dark Master is quite intimidating; do you think you can roll for courage? Can you roll less than 70% to overcome your fear of Zorc?”

“I’ve faced Mr. Hopp, I’ve fought against Flowy, I even faced against the god damn Doll Maker!” Jasper hissed. “I’m not afraid of Zorc.”

“That’s for the dice to say, now isn’t it?”

94.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” 

“It looks like you’re paralyzed with fear, and with Zorc being able to make the first move.”

00  
And then there was one. Lorelei was the only one standing as she stared down at her friends on the board before and the Puppet Master laughing, taunting her; she was the only one standing, her friends’ lives were at her hands now. If everyone’s HP hits zero they were gone forever, such a big responsibility for an elf; a creature that was never entirely a part of the world, he wondered could such a creature actually take care of others.

“It appears the Bard still has one more chance to attack, Little Lori. Roll the dice.”

No, enough was enough. She may have her own skills in a normal game, but for a Shadow Game…She had to rely on Her. She was the only one who can match wits and powers with another Millennium item. Lorelei leaned back and held her head up high as she stared down the Puppet Master before her.

“Before that, I want you to transfer my soul into my character.” She said calmly.

Not the answer he was expecting. “I beg your pardon? Did I hear you right? You wish to become a miniature too?”

“Is there an echo in the room?” She challenged. “You heard me, transfer my soul to my character, I wish to fight alongside my friends.”

“A request I can grant, very well…I’ll let you live your life in the game with your friends; since no-one will be able to throw the dice you four can spend the rest of your lives together until I need you for another game. It’s Game Over, Little Lori.” 

That was the easiest way to get the Millennium Puzzle, now that the obstacles were out of the way, he could focus on ripping that puzzle from her body. He wasn’t blind, he saw that it was melded to her skin, and now that she was no longer of this world, he didn’t have any qualms about tearing it off – skin and all. Shame, she was quite the girl, well…that’s how it was sometimes. He shrugged and looked up to assess the body only to freeze…She was still sitting upright! How the hell was that possible, Lorelei should have been a soulless husk her soul should be in the figurine on the board! 

“You look surprised to see me.” The girl smirked. “I assume you’re looking for Lorelei? She’s on the board where you left her.”

The girl was right, on the board was the Warlock with her friends. If she’s there, then who the hell was sitting in front of him!

“I believe it was my roll, Puppet Master.” She tossed the dice to the table. “The Bard’s move is mine.”

03\. A direct hit with his Rapier, and Zorc’s hand severing from the body.

“Don’t worry everyone, you’re safe with me.” The girl assured.

 *****  
Lorelei heaved a breath of relief before looking up before her; there she stood, almost an exact mirror of her, Mira. She smiled up and bowed her head, thanking her for everything she had done for her and her friends; of course, she would like it more if she hadn’t caused serious harm to others. To which, Mira reminded her of some of the acts she had done (“I believe someone used a skip-it in taking down a gang with yoyos? That was you, Lorelei, not me”). Jasper had made the side comment that the two really were identical, if Kage had her own body, she could pass as Lorelei’s twin! Did that meant that The Other would resemble Yugi and pass as his twin? That would be for another night, right now…they had to survive this night.

Another monster battle went by and they were headed to the castle with Mira (or Kage, as Jasper calls her) in control of the dice. That was another thing; they found out how the Puppet Master has been getting critical rolls after critical rolls; spin the dice and use the table to keep them going until a number you need was shown. Both spirits were able to cheat it appeared, thus resulting the rule in letting the dice fall from their hands instead. Needless to say, both Jasper and Hanasaki were pissed off to no end, they wouldn’t be sitting in miniatures if the Puppet Master hadn’t cheated on his rolls (they were going to kick his ass after this)! As of now, they stood before the castle after clearing the way of monsters that had spawned from Zorc’s hand; Miho had done some considerable amount of damage to the first monster with her quarterstaff, and Hanasaki finished off with a good slash down with a long sword. The second monster didn’t fare much better thanks to Lorelei’s Wall of Light and Jasper’s stab with his rapier, blinded and gutted was a horrible way for a monster to go. Crossing the threshold and entering the throne room, Zorc was nowhere to be seen; and the investigation didn’t turn out so well either. Miho and Hanasaki noticed a strange tower and went in to get a better look at the pillar with some curves etched in, this was a trap and they were stuck in place with spikes in their head. On one hand; this was seriously bad, on the other hand; it drew Zorc out…of course the two could only last for three rolls and Mira had to figure out the doubles needed to save the two; the puzzle was the downfall since any other rolls for Lorelei and Jasper wouldn’t go through.

33

Safe and a nice surprised attack on Zorc.

The Puppet Master was getting pretty pissed off at these five. Luck wasn’t needed here, there was no other charms lurking about! Why the hell were they becoming so successful? It wasn’t the cheating spins, they’ve outlawed those. According to that Other Lorelei, it was their anger and rage that were channeled into the dice and their rage produced those critical rolls; Lorelei’s Wall of Light that essentially blinded Zorc in a holy light, Miho’s Ki magic, a divine energy blast to the face, Hanasaki’s sword to the eye and taking it out in the process (which in turn had hurt his own eye), and Jasper being face to face with a rapier to the chest. Enough was enough, he wasn’t going to let these level fives take him down like this. He was the Dungeon Master; this world was his; these fools had no chance of taking him down and he would see to it with this final blast.

00

That was it! Those pathetic whelps were finally dust, they were lifeless husks now thanks to his little Inferno Blast. Poor Little Lori, she lost the other half of her soul, didn’t she? She was weak! He could kill her now and take the puzzle from her! Of course, he was a fair dungeon master and he wouldn’t make the final call until the computer did. Not like it mattered, one final check and…WHAT?! THEY STILL HAD ONE HP! Impossible! That blast should have killed everyone, why didn’t it work what was the meaning of this!?

**I am Ryou Bakura**   
**I won’t let you kill my friends; I’ll fight too.**

No. No. No. **NO. _NO_. _NO_!** This was fine, this is just a minor setback. His host wasn’t going to rebel like this, how could he? He was in charge of the boy’s body, he controlled the dice, he controlled the world. What could this brat do?

**I won’t let you control me anymore!**   
**I’m going to help my friends strike you down!**

His hand…the one that bard took! Did severing it cause the separation in the link somehow? Very well, two can play that game, just simply move the laptop away from his left hand and he could continue on without any interference.

“Got a case of the twitchy fingers there?” ‘Lorelei’ taunted. “What seems to be the problem?”

“Nothing, apparently it’s your loyal bard’s turn.” He huffed.

09 and for his roll…00! Yes!

“Check your dice, Puppet Master.”

10\. A fucking 10?! How?! It was a critical one second ago! No, he had his dice…He can turn this around. Sure, the adventurers just healed themselves but he can kill them again; they were just tiny level fives and Zorc was ten levels higher. All he need was a critical roll and then he can kill them for good. There was still time to change everything.

99.

This fucking left hand.

“That does it!” he growled. “You’re just as bad as them.” He slammed his hand into the spike of the castle and sneered. “How does the ‘durable polyresin’ feel, Ryou! Try and help your friends now!”

Ryou? So that explains everything; their friend was fighting against him. And now…Now it was time to end this game for good.

A new ally was spawned after Miho had saved a white mage from within Zorc. A level 13 white mage that is, the real Ryou was with them safe and sound, and as great as having a reunion sounded, they had a boss to take down. Critical hits after critical hits, the monster was slowly being destroyed; each hit had caused the Puppet Master immense pain (of course, Lori and Mira would be lying if they said it didn’t bring them joy to see the wicked being get hurt, they found it to be karma for hurting them and for hurting Ryou like this). When it came to the final roll; both Mira and the Puppet Master rolled criticals, they once believed it was game over, but to their heart broken surprise…Puppet Master’s dice started to shatter and…Ryou’s spirit arrived from inside. He put his entire being in…He…He was glad to sacrifice his own soul to shatter the dice and…

“Ryou!” Lorelei cried out.

So only the heroes had the 00 and had the final killing blow. They got rid of Zorc and the spirit of the ring but at what cost. Mira was by the boy’s side and checking him over, even she confirmed the grim news and…it broke her heart to see Lorelei and her friends mourn like this.

“Don’t cry.” The white mage spoke up. “His soul is still alive…inside of me.” He looked up at Mira. “Mira…or Kage…whichever name you go by, my magic should be strong enough to transfer my soul back to Ryou and revive him. But…I need the roll of the dice.”

“We can worry about names another date.” Mira picked up the dice. “I can promise you; it will be a critical.”

*

“I see your puzzle is back to two.” Ryou smiled.

“And I see the bandages are off.” Jasper smiled back. “How are you feeling?”

“Everything is fine; it turns out after you defeated the spirit of the ring any and all damage, he’s caused at my old schools have been reversed.” He sat with the group. “Even the damage he caused Suzie.”

His blush didn’t escape the group. Before Ryou knew it, everyone pounced and prodded for more information on his mystery girl; did he have pictures? What was she like? How did they meet? He was becoming more and more flustered with each time. 

“Oh! Ryou, if you really want to show Suzie how much you love her.” Yugi started out. “I happen to know some flower combinations.”

“Oh, Yugi, please don’t.” he was red. “I can’t take it anymore.”

“Fine, I’ll finish for him.” Lorelei grinned. 

“If you do, I won’t give you your present.” Ryou warned.

Present? That got everyone’s attention. The boy smirked and took out a display case from his bag; inside were not only the four from the monster world incident, but he had added Anzu, Yugi, Katsuya, and Hiroto to it (and some cute chibi monsters to boot!). 

“You handed me four extras when you were making character sheets.” Ryou poked at Jasper. “I took advantage of that and made this for everyone. Perhaps, next session all of us can play, no evil spirits are invited.”

“I have salt ready to go if needed.” Miho chimed. “That reminds, we have a present for you!”

Hanasaki took out a small iron box and opened it; rosemary, salt, amethysts, and violet leaves. “We made this case for the ring so that it won’t bother you anymore.”

Ryou took it and smiled. “I think this will work perfectly, thank you.”

“And uh just to be safe…I do have sage.” Jasper took said item from his bag. “I’d recommend saging the fuck out of that game room we were in before we do any other sessions.”

“I can respect that, I’ll get started on it after school today…maybe tomorrow if everyone’s free, we can go ahead and start a new campaign?”

Katsuya grinned. “I’m a kick ass swordsman, of course I’ll join! Besides, someone has to keep the Bard safe.” He winked to Jasper.

“Excuse me? Kit Kat are you trying to take my job?” 

“Red Hood, you need the break, let me take care of Jasper. You…do whatever girls do when they’re not in fight clubs.”

“Kit Kat…” 

“Uh Katsuya, I think you should stop.” Ryou started.

Hiroto and Anzu laid a hand on his shoulder and shook their heads, it was usually best to let scenes like this unfold…it usually ended with Katsuya getting ‘Gib smacked’ by Lorelei in the end anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay look; I love Yugi and the Crew, but the moves they made in Monster World...(specifically that spiked trap with the pillar?) They had to have shared a braincell that night. So! My bro and I being the DnD dorks we are...we decided to help our folks along...barely >:3
> 
> and because we love you folks:
> 
> Monster World Characters:  
> Miho: Kalashtar Monk [Tank]  
> Hanasaki: Gnome Fighter [Range fighter]  
> Lorelei: Elf Warlock [Leader]  
> Jasper: Human Bard [Healer]
> 
> Monster World Spells:  
> Miho: [None Apply]  
> Hanasaki: [ None Apply]  
> Lorelei: Danse Macabre [Controls the dead for 1hr], Wall of Light [Conceals],  
> Jasper: Lesser Restoration [Healing] Detect Magic.
> 
> Monster World Weapons:  
> Miho: Quarterstaff  
> Hanasaki: long sword, shield  
> Lorelei: Staff, dagger  
> Jasper: Flute, Rapier
> 
> Other Lori: Mira [Mirror] Kage [Shadow] which name do you like more?


	9. Duelist Kingdom (Duel 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who spent her entire afternoon working on this?

Ever since the end of the events of Monster World, things had been surprisingly quiet. Well, as quiet as one can get when the All Girls’ Duel Monsters tournament was around the corner, followed by the Regionals. Everyone was working their asses off on their decks and strategies to make things work. Yugi and Sugoroku were helping everyone train and even recommending certain cards to add to their decks – which, Lorelei provided for if she had the extras in her binders and boxes. Anzu, Jasper, and Miho had a fairy theme going on, Hanasaki and Katsuya were going strong with warriors, Yugi and Lorelei were sitting pretty with their Spellcasters, Ryou with his occult deck, and Hiroto…he had a beast theme despite saying he wasn’t going to play. It was actually a great turnaround, especially with their free for all duels. Sit in a circle, and duel; everyone was free game and the last one standing would be the winner. The first one out had to make dinner for everyone. A fair bet…Unless your name was Hiroto Honda, then you were currently in the kitchen making food for the rest of the players.

It was the weekend of the Rose Garden Championship; the boys were back at the game shop polishing their moves and strategies while they were waiting for their girls to be called. As of now, Katsuya was holding one of Lorelei’s copies of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, he was still pissed off at the events that Seto had thrown them in all because of this; but here it was, a page filled with different Blue-Eyes and their various art prints. Apparently, the story goes that because the creator was having an art block, he kept recalling the dragon because he didn’t like how they looked. Thus, the rumor of there’s only four blue-eyes in the world began. But now and days, it was easy to get the card!

“Thinking about Seto again?” Jasper asked. 

Katsuya nodded. “Yeah, I’m just…there was no need to put us through his killer amusement park just for a card that you can now get anywhere!”

“Are you sure it was because of a card?” Ryou asked. “I’m not dismissing your pain, but it just feels like there’s more to it than that.”

“Whatever the case, there was seriously no need to put our lives in danger.” Hiroto pointed out. “Hell, Anzu was hired by the creep! Yeah, he didn’t know she was our friend and yeah, she didn’t know what he was signing her up to be, but again, that was no excuse!”

“I think this is one conversation we should have when the others are back.” Hanasaki pointed out. “I mean, Anzu should be here to give her accounts on how she was roped in too.” 

The silent agreement went as that before they began going through the cards again, they were interrupted when the announcer had called on the next duelists; it was Miho Nosaka versus Risa Kageyama. The boys quickly turned the volume up and moved closer so they could watch their friends compete in the Rose Garden, it was a tough battle with Risa’s spellcasters and Risa gaining the upper hand, but Miho surprised everyone by bringing out a beautiful ‘dragon’ creature onto the field; Ancient Sacred Wyvern. Hiroto made the off-hand comment that that particular card was Miho’s ace. Sure enough, one blast from the beautiful creature granted Miho the victory she earned. 

Sadly, in the next battle, Anzu Mazaki versus Kaoruko Himekoji wasn’t much better, while Anzu had a lead with her own fairy and cute monsters, Kaoruko wiped the floor with her Harpie Lady Sisters, leading to the haughty rose wearing girl to mock her, leading to the ire of Anzu, and of the boys watching at home. Lorelei – who after defeating Momoe Hamaguchi – was dueling Kaoruko next. Needless to say, Lorelei won with her ace; Gravekeeper’s Visionary and his startling effect of gaining 200 attack for each gravekeeper monster in her graveyard; well…almost all of her gravekeepers were in the graveyard; 21 x 200 = 4200, adding that with the existing 2000 totaling to 6200. Kaoruko didn’t stand a chance.

The matches went on like so and it got to the finals where Lorelei was facing against another champion – someone from the states that had flown into Domino some time ago. Suzie Tsurugi. There was something about her that Lori couldn’t place, Mira definitely noticed something though and had taken over for the remainder of the duel; it was her gravekeepers against the lightsworn creatures. At first, the group were confused as to why Suzie would have creatures that would risk decking herself out; but after she brought out the Judgement Dragon, there was a collective “Oh.” From them. Lorelei’s field was completely bare after that and after the current attack, she was sitting pretty with 1000 LP. She got her opponent back by fusion summoning the Quintet Magician, her second ace. Like with Judgement Dragon, she used her magician’s effect to destroy the cards Suzie controlled. One strike later and she made a comeback.

“Good Duel.” Lorelei held her hand out. “You really did a number on me.”

Suzie shook her hand and smiled. “You did pretty good too, Rose Queen, I wasn’t expecting you to pull a move like that.”

“I figured you’d see through my last gravekeeper strategy so I had to switch things up a little bit.” 

“You would be right; you do know with us being first and second we have a shot at a special tournament.” 

“What special tournament?”

“Tune into the regionals and find out.” Suzie grinned. “I hope to face you again, Lori.”

“Before you head out, can I ask you something personal?” She got Suzie’s attention. “By any chance do you know Ryou Bakura?”

“Yes, I know him, he’s my boyfriend.” Her eyes lit up a bit. “Oh my god, I thought your name sounded familiar! He wouldn’t shut up about you and your campfire stories!” she laughed. “You have to tell me now, is it true you made him sick with a story?”

Lorelei’s grin was enough to confirm it.

 *****  
Finally, the ladies could relax! It’s been a week since the events of the Rose Garden Tournament and throughout most of the regionals; the only people that were joining the girls today were Katsuya (He ranked eight), Hanasaki, Ryou, Hiroto, Yugi, and Suzie. It took some time but Ryou managed to get his girlfriend over to meet the rest of the gang, well…everyone except Jasper. His duel was the one they were watching; Jasper vs. Ryota Kajiki; Fairy vs. Water. At the start, it looked like Jasper was in the lead as he sent his powerful fairies after Ryota’s water-based creatures. Athena was the star of the field and was chipping away at his life points, it wasn’t until Ryota played the spell double summon where he brought out a level four tuner and a level four non tuner did things turn for the worst; Adamatia Rise- Dragite. A sparkling monster sitting with 3000, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the effect where Athena was about to summon another fairy for support was negated and was destroyed by the Dragite’s effect. Now defenseless; one hit kill was all it took to bring Jasper out. 

“I’m…Actually amazed. I thought I had you on the ropes with Athena!” Jasper held his hand out to him.

“That’s what I wanted you to think, this game is a lot like fishing, you just have to read the other and use the appropriate bate, I saw how you were in the earlier duels, so I used that to my advantage, still good game too” Ryota smiled, shaking the other’s hand with a smile.

The next part of the tournament didn’t really interest them; sure, they kept it playing to see who would win the regionals. It came down to bugs versus dinosaurs and after hearing Suzie confirm that Haga was a known cheater (and still wondering how the runt got into tournaments to begin with), everyone agreed to root for Dinosaur Ryuzaki to win. To their disappointment, it was Haga that won the regionals. Everyone just groaned and leaned back, after turning the TV off for the night.

“Hey Yugi, why didn’t you join Regionals?” Katsuya asked. “I mean, out of everyone here you and Lorelei would have made it to the top two!”

Yugi looked down and played with one of the eternal roses from Lorelei’s bouquet. “I made the decision that I wouldn’t join any tournament unless it was to fight him.”

All eyes were on him, Lorelei spoke up and laid a hand on his. “Seto still hasn’t woken up yet?”

“He’s still in the coma.” He confirmed. “Jasper and I went to visit him and nothing had changed. He did leave flowers for him to get well soon; a mix of lemon balm, acorn, daffodils, garlic, cherry blossom, thyme, nuts, and narcissus.”

She nodded. “I personally would have gone with white hyacinth but…technically speaking I would be giving him funeral flowers since white here means death and not purity like back home.” 

“Culture shock much?” Ryou mused. “Well, with the ending of the tournament, what are we going to do tonight? The night is still young after all.”

“We could open the mystery package.” Sugoroku pointed out. 

Right, earlier today a package came for both Yugi and Lorelei. But with everything that’s been happening with the regionals they completely forgot all about it, the two started to contemplate if they should wait until Jasper came home but curiosity outweighed everything else. Inside the box was a glove, two stars, a video tape. Shrugging, they turned the TV on and inserted the tape. It was…strange to say the least. It started off as a video message from the creator of Duel Monsters, Pegasus J. Crawford and how excited he was to meet the boy who had defeated Seto Kaiba and how he wanted to try his hand against him. Not only that, he wanted to go against the famous Gravekeepers that ‘Little Lorelei’ used in the Rose Garden. It would be a two versus one on this video tape. That’s what the weird thing was, how would one duel against a video tape? Well…Their answer was given. It was a shadow game, all thanks to something called the Millennium Eye. And thanks to that, the puzzle joined as one and extended the cord, tangling Lorelei and Yugi together. Both Other Yugi and Mira were out in the open and sitting side by side as they began their duel.

Monster after monster being countered, it took a few blows before it dawned on them; subliminal cuts! It made the duel easier between the trio. It got to the point where Pegasus was down to 300 and the two were at…200. Yugi tried to turn it around with Summoned Skull, but…the timer that Pegasus had already reached zero and like any shadow game, the losers had to face a penalty game. Unfortunately, the target was Sugoroku and his soul was now trapped inside of the tape. That night was just the roughest one out of them all, and it was that night that whatever The Other Yugi had in place was shattered after that game. The Shadow Game shattered the protection he had around Yugi.

*****

“Okay class, welcome to another Millennium Meeting.” Katsuya sighed. “We’d have this in the game shop but right now…we kind of exceed the compacity of the study and I don’t feel like getting someone’s elbow in my face.”

These were beginning to become eerily common and the number of people joining the meetings were pretty alarming. Lorelei was shuffling her cards to keep her head leveled, Jasper was no better with his sketchbook as he got more and more detailed on a grotesque duel monster. What did they know so far; another item had entered the field, this one – like the Millennium Ring can steal souls and trap them into something. The creator of duel monsters had the eye (unsure how or when), and this item was powerful enough to shatter the protection from Yugi. 

“Is anyone else starting to get the feeling of dread?” Jasper asked. “This is Millennium Item number five that we know of, five items in this span of time is something serious. We have more questions than we do of any answers! What the hell are we missing here!?”

Ryou cleared his throat. “If I may offer a suggestion.” He brought out a laptop. “I’ve visited a lot of sites that deals with magic and the occult, there’s one group that claims to be an expert in this field. I’ve emailed them about the Millennium Ring sometime after the events of Monster World. They finally got back to me about my inquiries.”

“And? What did they say?”

Ryou cleared his throat before reading the email. 

**“Dear Ryou,**  
**I won’t lie to you and say we’ve started our investigation upon your request as we firmly believed you were being a troll. But, after rereading your e-mail and seeing how detailed everything was, we decided to have an emergency meeting.**

**Starting with the Millennium Puzzle; my family has served the Pharaohs for generation as powerful magicians. The story of the puzzle went that three thousand years ago, a kingdom made the puzzle and seven others through forbidden magic Shadow Alchemy…as the saying goes “We’ve unleased an evil genie and we can’t put it back” The kingdom sealed itself off after the war of shadows…I know what you’re going to ask ‘what does this have to do with the puzzle?’ the ruler that had the puzzle last went missing. That’s the story I’m under oath to tell, I’m afraid I can’t tell you the true reason as you’re not part of the court.**

**As for the ring; the strange thing about that was it once belonged to a magician. However, from what you described it seems that someone else got their hands on it. (Also, iron box? Protection herbs? I hate to tell you, but those won’t keep your friend away) I know this might sound outrageous and I know after everything you definitely don’t want anything to do with this spirit but he seems to know more about the items than you; it might be best if you talk to him and get him to reveal everything to you.**

**Finally, as much as I want us to fly down and assist you. I’m afraid we can’t. Without telling you much, know that I have my obligations where I live, I can’t pull away or pass my mantel to someone else. I’m deeply sorry that I can’t be of much help. But you are free to e-mail any inquiries and I’ll do what I can to help while under oath. Take care and be careful. The Millennium Items are not to be taken lightly.**

**-Torigan Dalimar-Shai.**

“Okay, great!” Hiroto clapped his hands. “We narrowed the field; we find out which Pharaoh was in power and-”

“You know the saying ‘easier said than done’?” Hanasaki asked. “We know that important people of the Pharaoh’s court held the items and we know there’s eight, but we now also know that the kingdom that had made the items sealed themselves away so there’s probably no records about the kingdom in question. Besides, even if there were records there’s nobles, high priests, government officials, advisors, soldiers, scribes.” He listed off. “Any one of them could have held one of the eight Millennium Items and that’s not counting the Pharaoh himself.”

“But he had to have wielded one.” Miho argued. “He’s considered a God in human form, if these items are as powerful as Mr. Dalimar-Shai had said then it’s logical that he would have one!”

“Enough!” Anzu cried. “Okay, we have three spirits and two of them are here with us. Yugi, Lori? Can you bring out the spirits?”

Yugi shook his head. “I can’t, unlike Mira and Lori I haven’t been able to make full contact with my other self.” He looked down. “I can sense what he’s feeling though and he’s pretty down that he and Mira had lost.” He closed his eyes. “I can hear Mira though; it seems after that duel the two finally found each other and the link is easier. Probably because, unlike the Other Me, she never really had a spell in place.”

Lorelei nodded. “Mira’s easier to get to, I can try to coax her out though.”

“While you do that.” Katsuya rolled up a magazine and aimed it at the puzzle Yugi wore. “HEY OTHER YUGI! CHEER UP!”

Yugi covered his ears and winced. Lori just smacked Katsuya on the head again before letting out a huff and closing her eyes. It was time to bring the star out; her subtle differences shown and her sharp acid green eyes had a bit of sadness to them as she forced on a smile to the group.

“How can I help this group today?” she asked.

“Mira…can you tell us anything you know about yourself?” Ryou asked gently. “Anything at all, like…maybe your favorite song?”

She gave a soft chuckle. “I would if I could…I’m sorry but all of my favorite things stem from watching Lori and you. I do enjoy her and her Alice games.”

“Nothing about your past?” Miho asked. “There has to be something! You came from Egypt, right? Do you remember anything about that?” the soft nod showed it. “Mira…”

“Please, save your tears.” She ordered. “They will not help us in this situation. I’ve spoken to the Other, like me, he cares about Yugi and all of you…so let’s worry about the items for later and focus on the now; we have a storm brewing and we need to find a way to get Mr. Mutou’s soul back to us.”

“She’s right.” Jasper spoke up. “Something will happen as time go by, I might know some ways to trigger a memory or two, but for now…we have a new game plan; Finding Pegasus and saving Mr. Mutou.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lemon balm  
> acorn: Nordic symbol of life and immortality  
> daffodils: Respect  
> garlic: Strength  
> cherry blossom: Kind/Gentle  
> thyme: Strength  
> nuts: Stupidity  
> narcissus: Egotism
> 
> Jasper essentially said: You're a stupid bastard, but I hope you get better soon xD


	10. Duelist Kingdom (Duel 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...Hi. 60 pages on my word doc. Do with that information as you see fit.

Aside from school, there was one other thing that got everyone going; sometime after the group returned to the game shop to discuss their next move they were greeted to some cards – invitation to the duelist kingdom, what time the barge would be leaving, and what the prize would be. But this wasn’t what got the group going, sometime this morning, Katsuya had received a video letter as well, except…it was from his sister. He didn’t have the right player so they headed inside the game shop to watch it. It was heartbreaking to say the least, Shizuka, the girl whose health was improving greatly, was going blind. Her health was perfect except she grew up with terrible eyesight! It just wasn’t fair; it wasn’t fair in the least!

“God…Damn it!” Katsuya punched a pillow. “I just used that prize money from that game show to pay off my dad’s gambling debts and now…I don’t think the extra shifts are going to cover this.” he fell to his knees.

“This might be a stretch.” Jasper started out. “But, the prize money for Duelist Kingdom should be enough to cover for surgery.”

“Yeah, I would go for it if I qualified! Only the top three duelists from the Rose Garden and the top five duelists from regionals got the invite, and last I checked I was eighth!”

“True, but also.” Lorelei handed one of her star chips to him. “The duelist glove card says as long as you have a star chip, you are qualified as a duelist in the tournament. You have three duelists here ready to give you one of theirs to ensure you have a solid way in.” 

“And you have two amazing friends who are going to stay in the hospital to make sure Mr. Mutou and Shizuka are getting the care they need.” Miho smiled. “Never know if Pegasus psych’s us out by returning his soul while you’re in the middle of dueling someone.”

“Look, Red Hood, I can’t accept it, that would mean you Yugi or Jasper would be going in at a risk of losing, I couldn’t do that to any of you” Katsuya returned the chip to the girl.

“Well too bad Kat, I’m giving you mine, you deserve to be there just as much as us, if not for us, do it for Shizuka, she needs you” Jasper took his own chip, and clasped the other’s hand closed, holding it.

“Before you get too into deep.” Suzie started. “The tournament is on an island; do you have anything to take shelter from the elements? What about food, I doubt fruit snacks are going to cover you for the three-day tournament.” She watched as one by one everyone turned away from her. “Honestly, I swear Ryou and I are the only ones with braincells of the group!”

“I know my grandpa has an old camping set in here somewhere.” Yugi muttered.

“Great. Just leaves the food and hygiene.” Ryou pointed out. “I’ll get your three days’ worth of dinner started.”

“I have first aid kits and travel toiletries all ready too, including one of those toilets you set up outside” Jasper holds up the box as well as the medical and toiletries kit.

*****

In exactly one week later, the time to set sail for the Kingdom had arrived. The pier was lively with a large group – no doubt this was the next batch of duelists to complete a bigger set. After a welcoming from one of the suits from II, everyone was embarking and being led to their rooms, of course; Lorelei, Jasper, and Suzie were qualified to have their own private rooms and it made it easy to smuggle their friends inside with the huge crowd; Jasper took in Yugi and Katsuya, Suzie took her boyfriend in, and Lorelei had Anzu and Hiroto in hers. It was a perfect way to get last minute deck building and practice duels in without giving the others a hint of their plays. When they were done getting settled, everyone decided to do their own thing; Katsuya and Yugi were inside working on their decks while Jasper and Lorelei were walking about and enjoying that sea salt air, the only thing that would make this perfect would be if they had a fruity cocktail to drink – they didn’t care if they were underage right now, they still wanted to complete the scene they had imagined! 

“If it isn’t the Rose Queen herself.” 

Lorelei looked over and saw a beautiful blond-haired woman walking their way; wearing a white tube top covered with a short dark purple jacket and a matching skirt, the violet heels she wore looked like they could gouge someone’s eye out, and the air surrounding her said that she could step on you with her killer heels and you would be inclined to thank her for it. This wasn’t a woman; this was a goddess in human form.

“Miss Kujaku, it’s great to see you again!” Lorelei smiled. “You and Suzie were neck and neck!”

“I could say the same thing about you.” She smiled and looked at Jasper. “Oh? You’re that boy that came in fourth place in regionals, aren’t you?” she narrowed her eyes at him.

“My oh Mai, glad to see you agreed to this tourney, I was worried you were going to back off from your promise when I beat you at regionals” Jasper smiled “Just, try not to break too many hearts on the field this time”

“Oh darling.” She laid a hand on his jacket. “You know I keep my word, but I won’t hold back when someone challenges me. I am going to _shred_ them.”

“By all means, go right ahead.” Jasper blurted out; he quickly covered his mouth afterwards.

“Right then.” Lorelei cleared her throat. “Anyway Miss Kujaku, it’ll be great to duel you sometime.” She smiled. “May the best ‘Rose’ win.” She held her hand out.

Mai stood back and shook her hand. “Just keep your cards safe, I only lost to Jasper because a certain insect messed with my deck in the regionals.” She huffed. “He’s going to be the first of many that will feel the claws of my Harpy Ladies.”

“If it’s any consolation, my friend Suzie wants to strangle him too. Maybe we should all gang up on him?” Jasper offered.

“I’ll consider the offer.” She turned and left. “Have a good night you two.”

The rest of the night seemed to go without a problem, the group had their decks polished up. They made their game plan when it came to dueling, and they were going to go all the way. When morning came and everyone disembarked, they were instructed to go up the stairs to the castle before them -a little dramatic looking if you were to ask Lorelei. But Pegasus was rich as well, he could build a castle if he wanted to, he had the money. From the castle, Pegasus gave his welcoming speech to everyone, explaining what the rules of the tournament would be and how one would advance to the finals by betting star chips against one another (“Remember kids, gambling is good for you”), and until the fireworks were set off, everyone had an hour to scout out their hunting spot for duelists to come. It wasn’t that hard, after all if you know your attributes and gameplay it would be easy to secure a location; however, right now, the group was on a mission. After enough accounts of Haga being a cheating bastard, they figured it was time they get him out of the way first and foremost, it was agreed that Yugi would take him out, he was the strongest of the group and it wouldn’t be too hard for him to make quick work of him.

And they were right, in twenty minutes after the tournament officially began; Haga was eliminated from the Duelist Kingdom and Yugi was in the lead with four star chips. The next on the list of champions was Katsuya and his duel against Mai, Jasper warned him that the woman played mind games and he didn’t heed the warnings until after her Harpies would slash and whip his monsters into oblivion. He made a comeback with Time Wizard and came out with two chips (and a glove he had stolen from Haga, but everyone agreed not to bring it up ever.). Lorelei was next when some boy came up and thinking she would be an easy target due to her winning the Rose Garden Tournament…he had learned the hard way of things that assuming Lorelei being easy was a mistake you only make once. She didn’t even show mercy, call it a luck of the draw or whatever it is, she had five magicians in her hand at the start of the duel, she drew polymerization…it, it was just a massacre that day. But, like with Yugi, she came out sitting pretty with four chips in her glove and leaving one devastated duelist in her wake. Suzie was just as brutal with her opponent and her Judgement Dragon out on the field, she toyed with her opponent like a cat playing with a mouse, sitting pretty with three chips. All that was left was Jasper and his beloved fairies; he had to admit that it took some time before someone came creeping up his way and he had his beloved Athena out and ready to destroy that person; like Katsuya, he was sitting with two. It was a wonderful start to the kingdom, and if they kept this up, they would be at Pegasus’ castle in no time.

“Oy Ryou!” Katsuya called. “How long would it take to unfreeze the food you brought?” he pointed to the cooler beside him. “I’m getting a little hungry here.”

“That’s what trail mixes are for.” Lorelei took out a packet. “To nibble on until the next meal time. We’ve already had breakfast on the cruise, and it’s only been two hours since the tournament began so it’s a little early to start thinking about lunch or dinner.”

“But I’m starving!” he whined. “I want something filling, not chocolate chips and peanuts!”

“There’s granola and dried fruit in here too, jackass!” 

“Whatever, I can find us better sounding snacks than what you have!” He inhaled the air and pointed to his left. “Right there! Whatever that smell is it has to be good!” he rushed off before anyone could call out and stop him.

The group just sighed and followed him, no doubt he would be getting everyone into some kind of trouble. And they were right; before them was a fire and fish roasting on the open flame, Katsuya was already there grabbing one to eat, Jasper had to be the one to rush over and stop him. Of course, Jasper would be lying if he said that the smell of the cooked fish didn’t make his mouth water. But he was a respectable person, the fish wasn’t his or Katsuya’s to eat!

“I thought you had more honor than this, Fairy King, Jasper.”

Jasper inwardly groaned; he knows that voice anywhere, Ryota Kajiki. He had let go of Katsuya’s shoulder and turned to face the shirtless fisherman, and cleared his throat. “I’m trying to stop my idiot boyfriend from eating your fish!”

“Hey! How was I suppose to know that the fish was his!” Katsuya protested.

“GEE KATSUYA! I WONDER!” Suzie threw her hands in the air. “Fish that’s laid out on a campfire, of course the camper would be nearby to prevent the spread of wildfires!”

“Look, I am so sorry about him.” Jasper turned back to him. “We’ve spent the last two hours of dueling and we were going to have a light snack before continuing but…yeah. We’ll be out of your net.”

Ryota shook his head and motioned the group to sit by the fire. “You’re here now, you may as well help yourselves.”

This felt a little too friendly, still, no-one was going to deny an invitation like that – even if it was because of Katsuya’s ‘finders keepers’ mentality. The group were thankful for the fish though, it was actually a good source of protein and it was definitely what they needed if they wanted to continue on with the tournament ahead of them. During the meal, Jasper was eager to introduce Ryota to everyone and even more-so his childhood friend (Hey, he knew that Lorelei had a type and the muscles with a harpoon was definitely it), Lorelei was friendly but it was clear she didn’t think of Ryota as her type (“I see what you’re trying to do, Jasper, and it’s not working.”). In light of everything, they got to learn more about the fisherman before them, about how he grew up on the sea with his father and how he was dueling for him; a boat with the latest sonar equipment and with it, the two would be getting the biggest catch out there every time! Ryou decided to use that point to bring up that Yugi, Lorelei, and Jasper were dueling for Sugoroku Mutou, Yugi’s grandfather and the group’s mentor, and also a grandfather figure to the afore mentioned two. Katsuya mentioned his little sister and how he was dueling for her. It was conversations like this that made everyone’s heart melt on the spot.

“We all have big goals ahead of us.” Suzie smiled softly. “I’m only here for the thrill of things, and also to keep these three on their toes.” She nudges Katsuya. “Him especially.”

Ryota laughed. “You certainly have your hands full then.”

“And with that said.” Lorelei stood up and bowed. “Thank you for treating us to lunch, if there’s anyway we can repay you.”

The flash of his eyes and the shark-like smile he had was enough to say it all. “Oh, but there is.” He turned to Yugi. “I treated you to lunch, perhaps you could honor me in a duel.”

“I knew this meal was too good to be true.” Ryou shook his head. “The fish was bait, and Katsuya took it hook, line, and sinker.”

“Can I say we let Katsuya duel him?” Jasper asked. “I mean, he was the one who got us roped in.” 

Yugi shook his head. “He was asking me specifically.” Nope, Other Yugi was out. At least this wasn’t a Shadow Game – to Jasper’s relief. “Very well, Ryota, I accept your challenge.”

If there was one thing everyone learned from dueling in Duelist Kingdom; it was complete anarchy. Want to summon Dark Magician with no tributes? Go right ahead. Want to burn the forest down to scorch some insects? Be our guest. This duel was no different, especially since Ryota had Yugi on the ropes after flooding the majority of the playing field. And even though there was still enough duel to go around, Suzie was close to calling it as Yugi’s first defeat. But to her surprise, all Yugi had to do was…destroy the moon and the fish would be dried up. That wasn’t even a joke, he had his stone soldier destroy the moon on the playing field and the tide receded. One fish roast later and Yugi was sitting with eight chips now. Moral of the story, don’t bet it all on Yugi’s defeat, you will lose the pot right there on the spot.

“Wait…Ryota…You’re out of chips.” Lorelei said softly. “You’re disqualified!”

“Am I?” He put the glove into his bag and sealed it. “What proof do they have?”

“They could check your bag.” She pointed out.

“Then I hide my bag with the rest of your belongings.” He smiled and walked off with them. “So, where are we going to hunt next? I’m sure you have your map laid out in advanced? Catching some unsuspecting people in the fold, Fairy King? Maybe spellbinding someone to come your way, Azure Witch?”

It was going to be a long afternoon, but it was one they were ready to deal with. Their party had grown and they were ready to take on the next challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ryota has joined the party.


	11. Duelist Kingdom (Duel 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, another chapter I spent all day on :D

There was probably one good thing about the waiting game, it was actually a lovely breezy afternoon, so much so that the group decided to have a round of fruit punch – curtesy of Ryou and him messing with frost-based spells he found on some school website. They agreed to relax beside an arena and waited for people to come to them, surprisingly, it did work out; for Suzie mostly, she was caught up to everyone in the grand scheme of life with five chips sitting nicely in her glove. Everyone else avoided Yugi, Jasper, and Lorelei, afraid of being slaughtered by them. It was flattering to hear how formidable they were to others, but it was getting tiring pretty damn fast – honestly, if they weren’t going to take the risk, they weren’t going to last long in the dueling world. Still, they had to admit the calm breeze and refreshments were a nice way to just relax before they dove back headfirst into the battle again; sharing stories with their new friend Ryota, plotting out their next strategy (Hey, the rules never said anything about changing a card or two in your deck), and talking about future game plans (Lorelei mentioned that Miho was going to introduce her to Death Mark when she got home). Yes, it was moments like this that made relaxing worth it.

That was the plan at least. The sound of someone screaming broke the silence, with an annoyed look the group just slowly put the empty frozen smoothies in an empty bag as well as cleaning up the rest of their site; picknick blanket is back in Katsuya’s bag, cooler was sealed again, and everyone did some stretching before going to the source; a duelist was in the process of being evicted from the island, they were about to turn and leave until the kid mentioned something about his star chips being stolen. That got their full attention, apparently some kid in a bandana challenged him to a duel and just as he laid his chips and cards down the thief snatched them and rushed off. Katsuya was ready to argue with the suit but…Lorelei actually had to side with the guy working for Pegasus. After everything they’ve seen from this tournament, everything was free game – stealing chips from your opponent wasn’t too much of a stretch with how extremely lax things were. The ‘agreement’ was that the boat leaving for home would leave in about fifteen minutes, they had until then to find the star chips and return them. The group started out again and once they were at the scene of the crime did Lorelei ever spoke out.

“You do know that suit wasn’t going to keep his word, right Kit Kat?” She asked. “Not to mention, with how lax everything had been so far, they’re going to let thievery take place. I could challenge someone to a duel, punch them out, take the chips and run. It’s really not that hard.”

“You make a fair point.” Katsuya agreed. “New plan; we find the thief, kick their ass, steal back the stolen chips and distribute them evenly among us.”

“Oh my god, are you guys listening to yourselves!” Anzu scolded. “You can’t just do that! You’re duelists! Not thugs!”

“As much as I hate to agree with the scenario.” Kajiki started. “Lorelei made a valid point; the tournament rules are extremely lax here. Case in point, The Mystical Moon card; since it was an equip card it should have been destroyed alongside the wolf he had on the field. But instead, it stayed on the field and caused the tides to grow – which, by the way wasn’t suppose to happen. Same with having his Stone Soldier destroying it from the field and causing the tides to recede.”

“In short, Pegasus is letting everything go in this tournament.” Jasper finished. “It’s as the song goes ‘The world has gone mad today, anything goes.’” He leaned on the glass box and crossed his legs. “So now technically, the plan is this; find the thief, duel them, win the star chips and then distribute them evenly among us.”

Anzu huffed and crossed her arms. “It’s still wrong!”

“You can say that all you want, but I don’t think Pegasus cares.” Lorelei sat beside Yugi. “Right now, we sit here and wait until the thief comes back. They always say the thief returns to the scene of the crime.”

It wasn’t that long of a wait before the thief showed up; short and wearing a bandana and honing in on Yugi. Fine, no big deal, this kid was going to learn the hard way of challenging him. The thief’s first mistake, betting it all; All eight of Yugi’s chips for all five of the thief’s stolen ones. The second mistake, playing with a deck that didn’t belong to him and playing really weak cards (seriously an 800 atk plant against a 1400 atk dragon?) The duel was actually too sad to watch. On the bright side of things, the third mistake was the last, attempting to steal from Yugi and leaving him with three of his chips before trying to run for it. What the runt failed to realize was that there was a huge group ready to keep him from getting far. And it was from there on, he learned the lesson the hard way when Suzie tackled him, forcing his arm behind him to make the chips fall to the ground (Which Ryota was kind enough to bag before a suit showed up). One yank of the bandana revealed the thief to be one Mokuba Kaiba. Oh, they were going to have a fun time with him.

“Alright Mokuba, you have five seconds to start talking before I take Kajiki’s harpoon and ram it down your throat!” Suzie hissed.

“Fine! I’ll talk! Just get off of me already!” 

She complied, except the iron grip on his arm remained. “There we go, you’re on your feet. Now talk.”

Mokuba narrowed his eyes and huff. “It’s Yugi’s fault anyway! If he hadn’t done his weird…black magic bull-” he yelped at the yank. “If he hadn’t done his weird black magic stunt my brother would still be here! But no! He’s still in the coma and because of that our company is up for grabs!”

"Explain." Suzie stated. 

"Pegasus and The Big Five are planning to take over the company! The big five came to the manor one night to steal documents but I hid the key...then told them I swallowed it. Part of the big five's deal with Pegasus is that Pegasus has to beat Yugi in a duel to rebuild the company's reputation. I figured if I took Yugi out myself that it would save our company."

“Just making sure I understand you correctly, you swallowed a key?” Jasper asked. “How long ago was this?”

“Idiot, I didn’t actually swallow it.” Mokuba huffed. “I’m not that stupid.”

“Suzie, with your permission I’d like to hit Mokuba upside the head.” Mira asked. (“Oh hell, the spirit is out!”) “Mokuba was it? Listen, you think you’re the only one who has a beef with Pegasus? Get in the back of the line, he just harmed us as well!”

“Lorelei, I appreciate your offer, but let me handle him.” She let go of him and sighed. “Mokuba, I know how much the company means to you and Seto, I’ve helped with some of your ideas. But, going after him like this isn’t going to do you any good, disqualifying Yugi is just opening someone else up to be targeted by Pegasus. You have a good heart, but you’re out of your league here. Please, as your friend, let us handle him.”

As the saying goes, it was easier said than done. No sooner did the agreement came to pass did a suit found them, after some exchanges a trial was to go on. Face the ‘ghost’ of Seto Kaiba. It was The Other Yugi versus a puppet master with a doll of Seto Kaiba, the ‘spirit’ was inside the doll and it was back to get revenge on Yugi for the pain he had put him through. It was actually frustrating to see, and even more so when it would taunt Yugi and play with stolen cards from the Kaiba Manor. The only way such a feat would be able to be pulled off is if there were some rats scurrying around the halls, such a thought made Mira’s blood boil at the thought of it – she made the mental note to hunt them down for a little game time. Fortunately, on Yugi’s end, he decided to take full advantage of Pegasus’ skewed tournament and its layouts, along with some strange miracle no-one could understand, he was able to defeat not one, not two, but three blue-eyes white dragons without breaking a sweat (that and they were certain that he had some powerhouse cards from Lorelei’s binders lurking in that deck somewhere). 

The only downside of things, Ryota was outmatched when another suit came up and knocked him out to get Mokuba away from him. So much for having their own muscle guard the boy, it felt like Pegasus was one step ahead of the group. With the duel ending and Yugi sitting at six (and one puppet master slowly losing his mind in the duel box), they spent the rest of the day searching for any form of whereabouts on Mokuba. No luck, but they were greeted to a beautiful sunset over some duelists that they figured could get a few more rounds in before they had to set up camp somewhere. To Katsuya’s lucky day, Mai Kujaku returned with someone to duel for her; Dinosaur Ryuzaki, it was a duel of the century! In a way. In the end and with only 65 LP left, Katsuya came out with four chips, there was the bet on the Red-Eyes and Time Wizard, but that was turned down as Katsuya held up his own Red-Eyes, curtesy of one of Lorelei’s collections. Surprisingly, Ryuzaki wanted to know more about her collection and even traded his own social media information for after the tournament “After all, any group that can drop kick Underwood out of the contest in twenty minutes, is alright in my book”. Mai was slightly annoyed and left in a huff. Aside from the minor hiccups along the way, the first day went off without a problem. It was only when the evening hours had hit did things took a turn. Turned out the spot they had scoped out was taken by Mai, she was setting up a camping site of her own when they started to unpack their tent, narrowing her eyes she walked over with that same goddess authority she had the night she met with Lorelei and Jasper on the cruise ship.

“I’m sorry, but this spot is already taken.” 

“Well I’m sorry, but this is the only even spot we can find.” Lorelei shot back. “Look, it’s been a long day and we’ve dueled to exhaustion, we can share this clearing for now.”

Mai looked at her before turning to the boys. “Please tell me you have more than one tent, if not then the only way I’m letting you stay around is if you have a separate place to stay.”

“We know Kajiki has his own tent, and it’s big enough for three people.” Anzu spoke up. “Yugi said his is also big enough for three to four; so…”

“Okay, wow…new idea. The girls will be rooming with me, you boys can have your own tents.” Mai shot a look at everyone. “And _everyone_ is going to be pitching in on this campsite, you hear me?”

“Say no more, my queen!” Katsuya covered his mouth after that slipped out.

Mai smirked. “Alright, ‘Kit Kat’, you and Kajiki can go get some water for the fire.” She ordered. “Hiroto and Jasper can go get the fire wood.” 

Ryou raised his hand. “We brought some food we could heat up as well, Yugi and I will take care of the cooking!”

“And you three lovely ladies.” Mai turned to look at Lorelei, Anzu, and Suzie. “You three, can go take a shower when the boys come back with some water. Just because you hang out with guys, doesn’t mean you have to smell like them.” 

Suzie shook her head. “What? Not a fan of the scent of pine and dirt?” She teased. “Come one Lori, let’s get the tents set up, Anzu and Mai can spend some quality girl time as they unload the sleeping bags.”

It was surprising to say the least, Mai couldn’t help herself but to laugh at the group’s antics. The boys came back with the water and had one bucket for the fire, one for cooking, and a few for the portable shower. Anzu was in first while the tents were being finished setting up – of course, Mai kept guard to make sure the boys didn’t try to sneak a peek. After everyone was washed up and dressed, dinner was served; Ryou’s now warm meals; wild rice soup, Mongolian beef, and non-alcoholic margarita cupcakes were on the menu alongside Mai’s instant curry meals. She wasn’t going to lie, she did ask Ryou how he had such a spread ready to go and his answer was the same as he gave the others; he made it ahead of time and used some freezing spell he found on some school website to keep everything cold and fresh (Mai made the mental note to look that spell up for later). The rest of the campfire time spent between everyone was the talk of future plans after the tournament and (this is coming from the ladies) what the ideal lover would be. Jasper took the stage and described Katsuya without a moment’s hesitation, needless to say the blond just stared at him in a confused daze.

“You have a unique taste.” Katsuya said. “But hey, you like the caring type and that’s great! I hope you find your ideal person.”

“Kat, do I have to spell it out for you?” Jasper sighed and pulled him over before kissing him on the lips.

Katsuya was frozen in a stunned silence from the action before him, he didn’t really know how to react at the moment except to sputter out incoherent words. That was his first kiss…his first kiss with his friend and now…apparently boyfriend? Did this make them official? Are they dating now? Shouldn’t they have a date first before the first kiss? Why were these thoughts hitting him like a freight train!?

“Jasper, I think you broke him.” Suzie poked Katsuya. “Yep, he’s broken.”

“Jasper…just…kissed me.” Katsuya said in a daze. 

“Dear god…I just kissed my crush in front of you guys!” Jasper buried his face into his hands. “Fuck me with a cactus!”

“Right, you boys play nice.” Mai stood up and picked Jasper up. “Lorelei, Suzie, and I are going to help this poor boy out.” She carried him off.

*****

“We leave you alone for twenty minutes, what the hell happened in that time frame?!” Jasper demanded.

Upon arriving back at the campsite, the group was greeted to the others looking dazed and drained. If Jasper had to make a guess, a Shadow Game had recently happened. Whatever the conditions were, it looked like it caused a great deal of hell, something similar to this had only happened with…wait a minute, did Ryou bring the ring with him? Why would he do that! He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sight, this was going to be a very long night indeed.

“So, this is going to sound crazy.” Hiroto started out. “But while you were gone, we were talking about our favorite duel monsters and then Ryou did this crazy thing with a ring and…we became duel monsters.”

“Ryou, _why_ did you bring the damn ring to this island?” Jasper hissed out.

“You’re not going to believe this but…it showed up in my bag on its own.” Ryou said sheepishly. “But we did get information from him in the shadow game! He said that all eight have a unique power and he was curious about the puzzle being split in two like that so he used this game to test the Other Yugi? He hasn’t said much about the two, but it’s something?”

Lorelei spoke up. “Right then, uh moving on…Mai said she would meet us back at the tents, she had to do a nature check. So, let’s get into the bags and head to bed, we’ll leave the lantern on for her.”

“Speaking of Mai.” Suzie looked at her. “You know, you never told us what your ideal partner is. We thought it was Kajiki since Jasper kept trying to hook you up with him.”

“Not to be rude, while I do love my guys with muscles, I see Kajiki as just a friend. He’s like that one older brother who would use you as a weight set.” Kajiki just gave her a thumbs up. “In any case…”

She was interrupted by a shrill scream. It sounded like Mai.

“In any case, we’ll continue this conversation later.” Kajiki led the charge to where Mai was.

“I’ll tell you later, Ryou!” Lorelei followed suit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look. Duelist Kingdom was Anarchy. Okay? I am justifying my actions on the bases of its anarchy behavior.


	12. Duelist Kingdom (Duel 4)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sitting up at Midnight watching SAW and dong this fic. dum de dum.

To say it was the worst thing they’ve saw would be a bit of an understatement. Mai had lost to a hulking giant – his size made Ushio look like a kitten, but that wasn’t the worst of things; the man before them had two gauntlets that were filled with star chips – both were filled to the brim with forty of them, he wore a black coat with some grey vest underneath, the lines on his eyes gave an eerie scar look. The only notable thing about his attire were the blotches on his grey vest and the red blotches on one of the gauntlets of his. The sight of the caked blood made Lorelei cover her mouth, she wasn’t the only one, Mai was shuddering as well and Kajiki had to use his shirt from his bag to cover her like a shock blanket. Once they got her calm enough, she explained what had happened; this man grabbed her from the shadows and dragged her to a dueling box and forced her in a duel, she lost all of her chips to this creep and she was technically eliminated. 

“In short he’s a poacher.” Suzie scoffed. “I’ve seen enough of his type roaming around, of course calling him that is being kind on those who hunt tigers for ‘traditional’ medicine.”

“A creep that lurks the shadows, he won’t be much of a challenge.” Mira mused.

“Lorelei, no!” Mai called out. “He’ll do to you what he did me and eliminate you from the competition!” 

“No, let her duel me.” The man said. “There’s a bounty on her head as well as Yugi’s, you’re making the job easier for me.”

Mira smirked and made her way into the box, she sat in one of the chairs and crossed her legs. “I can tell new blood will be on that gauntlet of yours.” She pointed to his glove. “Sad to disappoint that it won’t be mine.” She took her deck out and shuffled lazily. “Let’s make things interesting, Killer.”

“What could be more interesting than an all for nothing duel?” He smirked

“Ooh cocky, are we?” She set her cards on the table to be cut. “This is how we’re going to duel, eight of Mai’s chips for four of my chips, and to even the odds” she grinned at him. “My life.”

The others couldn’t believe what they just heard. Lorelei/Mira was betting her own life on the line for star chips. No, this shouldn’t have been surprising. She was fighting for Mai, and that was reason enough to sit pretty and demolish this man…well, they really need to stop thinking a duel with that high of stakes would be easy. The moment the man agreed a cord shot out from his gauntlet and roped around her neck; he was taking the offer on her life seriously. Mira wasn’t going to lie, dueling with a noose around her neck was going to be difficult – she suddenly understood how Jasper felt from this when he was in that trance back when she dealt with Shadi.

The duel started out in the man’s favor as he hid his creatures within the blanket of shadows thanks to the Castle of Dark Illusions – another effect that wasn’t in the card description, but this crazed man worked for Pegasus, the rules would bend for him – as well as the evening field for his monsters; dark type monsters, a lesson Mira learned the hard way after losing her Commandant to the shadows. Her eyes lit up in deviousness, so it’s a match against darkness was it? Very well, she can take advantage of the playing field as well; except for Commandant, every one of her Gravekeeper’s were of the dark attribute and they would get the field power bonus. If he liked to play with his opponents like they were nothing but pretty prey, she was going to treat him the same way. There was room for one alpha lion on this island and Mira was going to make sure he knew this.

It was obvious he was more muscle than brains, she had been laying a trap for him the entire time; the first giveaway should have been when she had Necrovalley on her side of the field, the second should have been when she had fused together two of her monsters to bring out Supernaturalist to her field and being safe from card effects, and using his effect to bring a Gravekeeper to her hand, and the final was when she had the continuous spell on the field to force him to discard a card from the top of the deck to the graveyard if he wanted to attack. He gave a powerful yank after she caused him to rid his Reaper of the Cards, she choked but it was worth it.

Needless to say, he was extremely pissed off at her. “Do you think you’re funny?” he growled out. “You’re just prolonging your inevitable doom with that spell card!”

“Says the man who refuse to attack me directly.” She shrugged. “Well, I hate to say, but this duel had bored me to tears…You’re not much of a challenge.” She pouted. “So, to put an end to this; I will have my Swords of Revealing Light bring your monsters to the light.” She reached for her face down. “And I’ll play this little trap card; Rite of Spirit” her pout turned into a wicked grin. “You should have been paying attention to my play, because with this trap I can bring any of my Gravekeeper’s from the grave to the field and I think I’ll bring my fusion material to the field! Say hello to Visionary!”

It wasn’t long before she powered him up with not only the field power bonus, but also with Necrovalley and the other Gravekeeper’s in her graveyard. She made sure to put everyone in defense to avoid losing her life points any further, he thought she was running but she played him like a fiddle. Didn’t matter which monster she slaughtered; it was a one hit kill. Game Over, for him at least. With a sigh she worked the noose off her neck and stretched before leaning on the glass wall.

“Other, I know you came out to watch my duel, take care of this man for me, will you?” she asked in a sickly-sweet voice.

The Other Yugi walked in and frowned at her. “We are going to have a talk about this later, Mira.” He turned and performed a penalty game on the Player Killer.

While he was in his little delusions, she walked over and put her four chips back into her glove and took back Mai’s eight chips. A thought crossed through her mind, he wasn’t going to be conscious for a while and he had it coming after all. With a devious grin she started to take out the other thirty-two stars out of his gloves and pocketing them in Kajiki’s bag, ignoring the horrified looks of Katsuya, Jasper, Hiroto, Anzu, and Mai. Kajiki was a bit disturbed but said nothing. Ryou? He walked over and helped her, but not before taking his wallet out and snagging his credit cards – hey, earlier the poacher bragged about having enough money to retire twice and he had rent coming up. What’s one little fraud going to do?

Suzie couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene before her. “My god, you are a devilish girl, aren’t you?”

Mira chuckled. “He had it coming, I’m the queen of the castle and he had to learn the hard way.”

The Other Yugi cleared his throat. “Mira. Mai’s starchips.” He held his hand out. “Hand them over.”

“Sheesh, I was going to give them back.” She complied with a huff.

The Other took the chips and went to Mai. It took her a while before she was able to accept them – and even then, she had to threaten Katsuya who jokingly claimed them as his. Mai had to admit, this entire group was just crazy! She couldn’t believe that she was sharing a campsite with them! But they had their charm and they had until dawn before they became enemies again who were duking it out for the rights to be called finalists. She put her reclaimed stars in her gauntlet and led the group back to the tents where they were able to sleep again for the rest of the night. Upon arriving, she held her tent open for Suzie, Anzu, and Lorelei so the four to get a good night’s sleep. Before they could get in, Ryou gently took Lorelei’s hand into his and gave a gentle tug to get her attention.

“I believe you owe an answer for earlier?” He asked.

“Oh, about my ideal person?” Lorelei asked. “Well, it’s actually a lot of different thing; promise you won’t tell the others this, Jasper still doesn’t know.” She looked to the other tents before turning to Ryou. “I’m actually Poly…and one of my types is blond, muscles, has to drive a motorcycle.” She listed. “The other type is…devoted, family oriented, cold on the outside but a softie on the inside, enjoys a night in with a good book and sweets on a rainy day at a café. My final type has to be into the supernatural, I want to have a debate on science and the unknown with them, they have to be a type of gamer and-” she covered her mouth. “Oh god, you’re one of my types…Ryou…I’m sorry, you’re dating Suzie.”

Ryou chuckled and smiled. “We’ll talk to Suzie about it in private.” He backed off. “Good night, honey.” He smirked and left for his tent.

*****

It was still and quiet for the majority of the night – save for the commotion at one of the boys’ tents – but for the most part, it was quiet. Everyone was able to sleep and everyone was able to get a decent rest, after everything that has been happening; from trying to save a kid from being kidnapped, to facing a puppet of Seto Kaiba to even facing against a creep in the darkness, a tournament where everything goes was exhausting on both body, mind, and spirit that it was finally great to just relax and fall into dreamland. Lorelei was snugged inside her sleeping bag, and was in her own little fantasy about going back to a normal life – well, a normal life she would want is one where she’s a best selling author with her handsome rogue husband coming into her office and holding out a teddy bear he thought she’d like. If she wasn’t dreaming about that, her dreams drifted off to where she was looking over a desert kingdom, when she wasn’t staring out at the town, she would find herself with a rogue and riding into the desert before playing in an oasis with the rogue. Strange enough, the rogue had messy white hair. Great, she was dreaming about Ryou. She was too tired to fret about it, she just decided to let tonight’s dreams take the wheel.

Bright lights. Loud whirring sound. God, what the hell was going on outside this time at night? She groaned and crawled out of her sleeping bag and dragged herself out of the tent. Her messy hair laying in total disarray – she wasn’t the only one in their pajama glory; the boys and her fellow ladies were in the same state. Mai rubbed her eyes and grumbled that she was going to murder whoever was this moronic asshole was to be waking everyone up at the ungodly hour of who knows what fucking time it was.

“So help me,” Mai grumbled out. “Hey! Whoever you are you have some fucking nerve!” She tossed a stone at the window of the landed helicopter. 

Once everything was turned off the driver came out in a dramatic flair, before them stood the one and only Seto Kaiba. If he wasn’t tired and ready to pass out while standing up, Jasper would be glad to see him back on his feet and not in the coma state he was in. 

“Kaiba!” Yugi rushed over (“Oh god, he’s a morning person”) and took out a deck from his vest pocket. “Here, someone had these and we got them back for you.”

Seto quietly accepted the cards. “I’ll say thank you for now.” He turned and narrowed his eyes slightly at Jasper. “Rowe.” He greeted. “I see you’re still attached at the hip to Royal.”

Lorelei gave a half-glare at him. “Please tell us there’s more to your visit at three a.m. other than waking us up during the evening of a tournament.”

“I’m not here for that.” Seto scoffed. “I’m here for Pegasus.”

“I’ve told this to your brother but, get in the back of the line.” She hissed.

He turned his hard gaze on her. “Royal.” He started off coldly. “I’m going to be patient with you since your dear aunt Eloise is a lawyer and your family along with Rowe’s are filled to the brim with world-renowned people.” He stared her dead on. “I respect, you have your own grudge against Pegasus; however, you are out of your league when it comes to him, you were there, you’ve seen it with your own eyes.”

“And Yugi and I fucking dueled him head to head! We _know_ what kind of duelist he is and if anyone’s out of their league, it’s you. You were the one in the coma via a hit from a fucking Millennium Item! This is the same thing and you’re not going to get far in the traditional means!”

Seto grabbed her arm and gave a sharp tug. “And you think you can handle him?! News Flash, Lorelei Royal, you are just a pawn in his little game.” He shoved her to Jasper. “Go about your game, pretend you can fight Pegasus, but you’re not going to be able to.”

“You know, it was one thing when you just talked down to her like a child.” Katsuya growled. “But the moment you put your hand on her? Then you crossed a line.” He stormed over and grabbed his shirt. “Red Hood won’t mind if I take her place in kicking your ass for her!”

It was that one phrase alone that triggered the reaction needed from Seto. It sparked with him bringing out a set of disks from his briefcase and challenged the blond to a round of duel monsters. Both were dueling to prove a point to the other; one who was showing how ‘outmatched’ the other was, whereas the other was dueling to show that he had earned his rights in the tournament of champions. The downside of things; Seto was worse than Lorelei when it came to slaughtering their opponents. When Lorelei went full force with her gravekeepers’ she did it with grace and honor – even if her opponent was scrum, she at least gave them a chance to go down with humility. But when Seto does it, he leaves not a shred of remain behind. Katsuya learned that the hard way after Seto’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon obliterated him. 

“Let that be a lesson, if you think that was bad you have no hopes in the harsh dueling world.”

**SLAP**

Seto held his cheek and looked down at the girl before him, Jasper was there with a sharp acidic look in his eyes. He was breathing pretty hard as he tried to settle his own racing heart.

“Listen here, Seto Kaiba.” His voice was cold as ice. “Listen to me and listen good; I don’t give two flying fucks if you are the second-best Duel Monsters champion. I don’t care if you are the CEO of Kaiba Corp, and I sure as fucking fuck don’t give two shits that you have a grudge against Pegasus. You and Mokuba think you’re the only ones hurting? You’re delusional. Pegasus has wronged us as well, and like you we want to get back at him for the same thing, we have family we’re trying save just as you’re trying to save Mokuba and if for one second you think you two have it bad because you may lose your precious company just because someone bested you in your own game…” he took a step back. “Get going, wouldn’t want to waste too much of your time. Let’s hope our paths _never_ cross again.”

The two left on that uneasy note, Seto took to the path on the way to the castle while the others stayed back and did their best in checking on Katsuya and Jasper. They were fine physically, but emotionally and mentally? Not so much, it would be a miracle if they got any kind of sleep that night. It was the rare time they broke the separate tent rules, since Jasper was rooming with Mai, Lorelei and Suzie, while Anzu went to be with Katsuya. Both needed their close friends to be with them. Lorelei held him close and ruffled his hair in a silent comforting motion, he just smiled and gave a gentle shove to the side in response. 

“How are you feeling, Ace?” she asked quietly.

“Could be better, Queen.” He sighed. “He’s a total asshole, I’m not going to sugar coat it.”

She nodded. “I know all he has is his brother, and I respect he wants to save him.” She started out. “But going lone wolf is going to get him killed.”

“His own brother isn’t safe either.” He reminded. “This is like a game of chess; Yugi and Pegasus are the Kings, you’re the Queen, Katsuya and I are the Knights, and Seto…he may not see this but, Seto is a pawn. Pegasus is stringing him along like a pawn ready to sacrifice. Mokuba is a pawn to get to Seto, Seto will be used to get to you two, and Pegasus’ Eliminators like PaniK? Also, Pawns.”

Lorelei sighed and nodded. “Sadly, you’re right…fucking captain of the chess club.” 

He ruffled her hair. “Hey, they didn’t call me the Pawn Star for nothing.” 

“I will kick you both into the ocean if you don’t shut up.” Mai muttered. “Why are you two talking about chess at three in the morning?”

Lorelei looked at her and smiled. “Sorry, we were comparing our situation to a game of chess.”

“Which you can tell me when we wake up.” Mai threw a pillow over her face. “Now go the fuck to sleep already.”


	13. Duelist Kingdom (Duel 5)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, so I've had fun playing this anarchy tournament. And now, I am going to go cry in my pillow because I decided to listen to a deleted song from the 2004 film of Phantom of the Opera (No One Would Listen) and It killed me like Learn to be Lonely and the ending. So now, I leave you readers with this chapter, good night everyone.
> 
> Edit: So, I posted this before it was finished. Sorry!

When morning came, everyone took turns to do last minute wash ups in the portable showers as well as dressing for the new day. Lorelei was dressed in a light green dress with small sunflowers, a white vest, white stockings with roses, and her signature black heeled boots. Her navy hair was put up in a high ponytail and had a rose clip in it. Looking at her friend, he was sporting his signature look with his hoodie and jeans, everyone else…she had to sigh, it seemed as though she and Jasper were the only ones who brought changes of clothes for the tournament – she even cringed slightly when Katsuya asked if they were serious about bringing a change of clothes for a three-day tournament and why they even bothered (she fought the urge to gag from that). After everyone was good and ready and their campsite was packed away, it was time to start the new day; Mai hugged Lorelei close and wished her luck as well as to scold her for pulling a dangerous move last night. The smell of her rose perfume and being held by her made Lorelei blush, even more so that after Mai had left them, she didn’t stop herself when she said “I saw and felt nirvana, and it smelled like roses!” Now that everyone was ready to go, they were ready to start dueling again. The only challenge was trying to find someone that was still on the island – if the blood from PaniK was anything to go off of, some people did lose their lives here, so there went some of the competition. If the rest weren’t dead, they were lurking somewhere else and they were more likely to be more of the powerful variety of duelists that eliminated the others with stronger cards. It would be a while, but they’ve used their ‘we’re harmless’ strategy before and they knocked down a few duelists for star chips earlier. They could trick the powerful ones just as well…if they could find a duel box that catered to their needs, Hiroto suggested that if all else fails, they still had a bag of star chips they could use to advance to the finals – a good idea, but for now, they were saving that for emergencies only.

Out in the open and ready to lure their own trap – or at least, relax and have themselves be bait for potential duelists. The waiting game was the hard part, where the hell was everyone else? This clearing was the spawning ground for other duelists and there was hardly anyone in sight. After sometime in waiting, Katsuya left the group to do a nature check. That was one part of their group gone for the time being, Jasper suggested a round of poker to kill some time, but Ryou had other plans. He told the others to start playing without him as he needed to talk to Lorelei and Suzie about something in private – weird, but they understood, plus, the trio could keep an eye out for Katsuya to return as well. Smiling, Ryou led the ladies at a good enough distance before talking to Suzie; he explained the conversation last night before turning the attention to the girl in question.

“Look, I just want to clear the air right now; I know you two are dating, and I have no plan in getting in between you two.” Lorelei started out. “Yes, Ryou has some of the traits I’m looking for, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to throw myself at him. Just so you know, I don’t plan on stealing him from you so…you can rest easily.”

“I wasn’t entirely afraid of you ‘stealing him’.” Suzie assured. “Ryou’s Poly too and he’ll always go after either the dangerous crowd or the sweethearts.” She smirked to Ryou. “Sweethearts like a certain…Warlock Elf that he’s trying to drum up a story for that ends with her marrying a White Magician?”

Now it was Ryou who was a flustered mess. “Suzie, campaigns are not the same as real life. I just find Lorelei’s character intriguing and thought that having two powerful magicians’ side by side would be an interesting relationship!”

Suzie just smirked and shook her head before turning back to Lorelei. “He’s not entirely the most subtle person, and I’m not even talking about the spirit he has lurking about with him.” She saw those green eyes widen a little. “Look, Lorelei, you’re fine for liking him; he likes you too, and obviously he likes me. I’m fine with ‘sharing him’ with you if you want to give it a try?”

“Well…mom always told me there’s no harm in trying out a few dates to see if something works.” Lorelei admitted. “Okay, after this tournament, Ryou and I will go on some and if it works then great the three of us will figure out what to do from there and if it doesn’t work out, then that’s fine too we can still be friend without things getting awkward.”

“Then it’s agreed, we’ll iron out details on our first date after this tournament is over.” Ryou nudged her. “Let’s head back, maybe Katsuya returned behind our backs.”

Katsuya didn’t show up. It was agreed that it was weird that he vanished without a trace like that, even more so when they agreed to split up and look for him that they couldn’t find him in any of the duel boxes – they had their doubts that he was thrown off the island, so where the hell could he have gone? Deciding to give one final sweep, the group decided this might be an uncanny job for the Millennium Items they had; Yugi had let the Other Yugi take control and focus his limited shadow powers to locate him – Katsuya was in a cave somewhere, that left with Ryou who took the ring out of his bag and gave it a stern look, he told the ring to lead them to Katsuya without any funny business unless it wanted to be banished to the graveyard again. Surprisingly, the ring actually listened to him and pointed its prongs to the direction of the blond in question.

Down the forest path and into a dark cave, the group made their way down the cavernous halls and stepping over corpses – the whole way the majority of them were praying they were just prop skeletons and that they were in no way anywhere near an actual burial site, Jasper was digging out the sage from his bag and ready to smudge the hell out of the place if it turned out to be one; he wasn’t in the mood to be cursed by the dead and he wasn’t in the mood to be haunted for the rest of his life.

Soon after, they came upon the duel box before them. Katsuya had walked out of there feeling relieved and holding up his glove and showing the gang his newly acquired star-chips. Jasper wasted no time in rushing over and tackling him into a hug, expressing his worry and congratulating him on being in the lead with eight chips! The celebration died when the four that had kidnapped Katsuya were trying to sneak out, Lorelei walked up to them and grabbed the leader by his tacky leather jacket.

“And where do you think you’re going?” she purred.

He scoffed and tried to pry her off, but the grip she held was like iron. Her nails were dug into his coat and a single tug could ruin it! “Let go you little-”

“Still crude as ever, are you Keith?” She mused. “Kidnapping people, cheating, I see you don’t even have a glove – are you using others to duel for you? Similar technique I believe back in the World Championship, I remember those duels so well.”

“Who do you think you are.” He turned and went a little ghostly pale – really glad he was wearing his sunglasses. “Fuck, you’re that Royal bitch! Your fucking cousin nearly broke my arm back there!”

“Connor?” She asked innocently. “He only saw you messing with a security camera to see your ‘helpers’ opponents’ cards. You were the cheater and Pegasus had every right to put you in place.”

“Wait…he did what?” The zombie kid asked. “But…Keith, you said that you were the one who went all the way before Pegasus humiliated you.” 

“I did! This bitch is lying because her cousin was the fucking security guard! He just warped the story to her!”

“Bitch please.” She scoffed. “I had backstage access and was hanging in the security room watching everything; I saw you in the lockers and feeding information, I was the one who sent Connor after you! You were a cheating bastard and you deserved to have been humiliated on live tv!”

“You’re going to regret that.” He turned and was ready to swing at her, but Lorelei had the upper-hand, she dodged and punched him right in the stomach before going straight for the nose. “Fucking hell!” he pulled from her and held his now bleeding nose.

She turned to the three boys who still had their gloves. “Word to the wise, you three might want to take this chance to run. This man is a known cheater, he _will_ steal from you and take your possible place in the finals.” She watched them run and waved them off.

The only problem with the caverns was that it acted like a maze, going out the way they came in was going to be a chore – especially since Bandit Keith just charged out that way after the three boys that he had tricked into helping him cheat. There was only one way left to go and that was further down the cave. Once more down the winding path and using Ryou’s ring as a navigational device, the group found the cave becoming less of a cave and more of a labyrinth wall. Eyebrows were raised and everyone was looking at one another for an explanation of some sort – no one had any idea why the layout was like this.

At the end of the tunnel, they were greeted to a huge arena where they met a pair of twins who challenged the pair into a tag team, but not just any tag team; they were going to do two versus four; The twins versus Lorelei, Jasper, Katsuya, and Yugi. Jasper suggested he would be on Katsuya’s side of the field and Lorelei would be with Yugi (They both have the puzzle; they should be together to better the odds). The rules were simple; the four duelists would duel with one shared deck and take turns. (I.e. If Lorelei makes the first move, Yugi would have to wait until the other three had made their moves before he could go), all four have 2000 life points each, if one part of the team loses their life points it was game over. They have to duel to reach a door to get back to the surface.

“We will answer one question each from you.” Mei said.

“Listen, guys…I got this.” Katsuya said. “I heard a riddle like this before; a man is trying to get to truth town but he doesn’t know the way. Upon coming to the crossroads, he sees a man walking up to him, since he doesn’t know which town the man comes from, he was made to ask one question; And the traveler asks, Take me to your town. If the man is lying, he would take the traveler to Honest Town, if the man was honest, he’d still take him to Honest Town. So, the answer to the Guardians’ riddle is this.” He turned to the twins. “Show me your door!”

Both pointed to one single door, Katsuya grinned. “See! Kyu’s door is the right one and Mei is the liar!”

“Kit Kat, you are logically correct and that’s a puzzle a lot of people tend to look over.” Mira started. “But I regret to say that in our situation you’re wrong.”

“She’s right, we can’t take their word at face value.” Other Yugi agreed. “Our situation may be similar, but unlike the original riddle we have two villagers that told us ‘one of us tells the truth and one of us always lies’ that alone in itself is suspicious. If one of them is a liar, both of them should claim to be honest. There’s also the possibility that they’re both liars; in other words, it’s not certain there’s even a town at the end of the road, but perhaps the road that leads off a cliff?”

“For now, let’s mix our cards together and create a winning deck.” Jasper offered. “We’ll play the game and figure out the door later, we still technically have three questions left so we should also use them wisely.”

It took careful strategic planning on their part; some of the players had to go without certain aces; for Mira, Necrovalley wasn’t an option in this duel, still even though she couldn’t really use it…she could still have the other support cards – after all, Duelist Kingdom was a free for all and so long as the gravekeepers were out and about things should still go by smooth. Once everything was settled and shuffled, the game began, Yugi took the first move and started the game by sending a beaver into the labyrinth; the strategy was simple for everyone – the four would play safe until they got an idea of their play style; hidden traps and hidden monsters, a traditional labyrinth playthrough. Oh, how those games were so much fun to play, and now that they know what they were going to do for this play. Jasper whistled over to Mira and made hand gestures to her – ASL, he had a plan for a quick victory, it was going to need the styles of everyone to pull this off, Katsuya stared at him odd but the wink from Jasper was all he needed to know that he had a devious plan and he returned that grin to Other Yugi with a thumbs up of his own, a grin from The Other Yugi and a sign from Mira was all that they needed to make this plan work. Katsuya and Other Yugi kept the brothers busy with their warriors and the Dark Magician, Jasper joined in and slid in with Hour Glass of Courage; while the boys kept the two brothers busy, Mira began working in the shadows, little by little she added in tasty bait for the brothers’ to attack – she didn’t like doing this to her Gravekeepers, but it had to be done until they got what they needed. 

They got one of the pieces they need; Other Yugi had fusion summoned the Black Skull Dragon, but it couldn’t enter the Labyrinth as it was a ‘No Fly’ Zone. He wasn’t bothered by that rule, in fact he anticipated it and nodded to Jasper who had used Lorelei’s Gravekeeper’s Chief (A level five spellcaster) and Katsuya’s level five combo master to bring out Artifact Durendal – their final piece of their plan. The moment the brothers were about to play Ryoku, was their fatal mistake. By detaching one of the materials from Artifact Durendal, Jasper was able to destroy one spell or trap card they controlled, and that meant the Labyrinth field was no more. If Duelist Kingdom lets you destroy the field with abilities or spell cards, this move was just as legal. Sure, they lost a monster and some life points from it, but they made a comeback with Katsuya’s copycat and using Ryoku on their dragon who was now able to charge and divebomb the Gate Guardian and won them the victory needed. Katsuya, Yugi, Lorelei, and Jasper were now sitting wit Suzie at ten chips each. Pegasus and his team were probably not expecting this, but that was the price to pay when you had a tournament where everything goes. 

“And now, to take care of the exit.” Mira stretched. “Katsuya, you were on the right path but you had the wrong riddle and the wrong answer.”

“Then what is the right answer!” Katsuya demanded.

She walked over and sat on the table, looking down at the brothers; “Mei, what would your brother say if I asked him about your door?”

“He would tell you that my door would lead to certain death.” Mei smirked. 

She nodded and turned to Kyu. “Kyu, what would your brother say about his door?”

“He would tell you that his door is the path to freedom.”

Katsuya just stared and slapped his forehead. “Mira! That’s the same loop they just threw us in when we first got here!” he cried.

“Not quite, both of them just said that Mei’s door is the incorrect one.” She turned to smile. “It’s the riddle of the Prisoner, The Liar, and the Truth Telling Guard. A prisoner is given the chance to escape the cell and return to freedom, but he is presented with two doors; one will free him while the other will lead him to death, there are two guards standing besides the two doors; one tells the truth and one tells the lie. What does the prisoner ask them?”

“He says, take me to your door to freedom.” Katsuya stressed. “I told you, the liar will take him to the honest guy’s door because he’s lying and the honest guy will take him through his own door because he’s telling the truth!”

“Not quite, he actually asks the liar ‘what will your partner tell me about your door’ and the liar will say the honest guy will tell the prisoner that the door leads to death. But, asking the honest guard ‘what will your partner tell me about _his_ door’ the honest guard will say the liar will assure the prisoner that the door will lead to freedom. Both guards pointed out the door to death, so the prisoner goes through the other door to Freedom.” She pointed to Kyu. “With that said, both brothers confessed Mei’s door is incorrect and that Kyu’s door is the way to the surface.”

The brothers shared a look with each other. It would be easy to just trick the players; they were able to switch the labyrinth as they pleased. Before they could do anything however, they felt a chill run down their spines as a piercing glare was settled upon them. They looked at the source of the glare, freezing when they saw a familiar person. They went to address her but stopped at what the glare held. "Say my name, I dare you." A silent threat that promised a world of pain if they were to address her or do anything to upset her. There was no way out of this for them that ended in their favor.

"Your friend is correct." The brothers admitted, knowing this was the only way out for them.

The brothers thought they were in the clear once the players had left. Which is why they both jumped with the icy glare returned followed by "What the hell do you two think you were doing?" The two quickly got to their hands and knees when they realized who it was, their heads bowed.

"Forgive us Princess! We're sorry!" They exclaimed.

"Heads up." The voice ordered. The brothers obeyed, coming face to face with a calm but angry Suzie.

"Now again, what the hell do you two think you're doing?" Suzie asked again.

"Pegasus hired us to eliminate any duelists we come across!" Mei explained.

"We didn't know that you would be here, honest!" Kyu added, "We're sorry, please forgive us!"

"You boys seem to forget something~" Suzie cooed, placing a hand on each of their faces, "Whatever Pegasus paid you is _nothing_ compared to what will happen to you for this little stunt of yours that you pulled." She said, venom dripping in her voice. She smirked when the two brothers gulped, "I suggest getting your affairs in order. You'll be getting a visit from my guardian angel soon." With that said, she simply patted both of their cheeks and hurried to return to the others. It wouldn't do her any good to make then worried after all.

 *****  
Finally, out of the underground and into the light, everyone was finally relieved when they were only a few feet away from the castle. All they had to do was go up the winding stairs and go through the door and they would be in as finalists of the Duelist Kingdom, they just had to go through the finals and then they can finally face Pegasus in a final showdown in order to get back Mr. Mutou’s soul. Of course, like everything in their strange little life, it was easier said than done; standing before them and blocking the way was Seto Kaiba, he looked different than he did last night and the fire in his eyes was enough. From where Jasper was standing and hearing of the situation; this was a duel of fate, Seto had tried his hand in searching for answers in the shadows but was unsuccessful – he would have to ask Yugi and Katsuya more about this Death – T chaos at a later date and he decided that this duel was all that they needed. The bet was five starchips each and the duel began with Seto’s new duel disk design – it still looked like a Yoyo in Jasper’s opinion.

It was actually one hell of a battle, Seto had a huge advantage after ‘infecting’ Yugi with the crush card virus and making all level five or higher monsters unable to be summoned with its effect, then there was the fact there were three blue-eyes that were fused into the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Although Yugi was his friend, Jasper had to admit, this may be the one rare case he wouldn’t get out of this situation! Was this going to be the first ever defeat? Probably, if Yugi hadn’t pulled a miracle move with Kuriboh, a living arrow card and fusing a zombie card with the dragon and causing it to decay and rot from the inside out. The Ultimate Dragon was weak enough for level four monsters to attack, and that’s what happened with one slice of the head and one hit to the LPs sent Seto to 400 points. He wanted to be glad that Yugi got the advantage, but that vacant look in Seto’s eyes…he didn’t do anything to keep a head from being destroyed. He just stood there and he looked so hollowed inside, the concern he had was noted by the others, and before he could even say anything Seto made his move. 

Oh, he made his move alright, he took a step back and stood on the edge of the arena, that action alone made Lorelei cover her mouth in a silent scream and Jasper looking like he was going to break from it – wide eyes, jaw dropped opened, paled skin. No…No, Seto would not be that desperate to win at a card game against his rival, he wouldn’t!

“I have nothing more to lose.” Seto said, “If you hit me again…if you win this game…I will die. I would gladly die for the cards.” The hollowed expression was still there, even though he was smiling.

Katsuya was quick to call it a bluff, but to the others…they weren’t so sure. Even with him goading him to attack, even though he had brought back to life a healthy Blue-Eyes to the field at full health, he still challenged Yugi to attack.

“Yugi! Slit my throat with your card!”

The attack was called and Lorelei hid her face in Jasper’s arms, both were waiting for the blow to be heard but nothing except Seto having his Blue-Eyes attack the Celtic Guardian. It was game over for Yugi, and Seto…

**SLAP!**

“You son of a fucking bitch!” Lorelei screamed as she raised her hand for another slap. “I’ll throw you off the fucking castle my self you…you…! I fucking hate you Seto Kaiba!” 

**SLAP!**

“I fucking hate you!” Her green eyes were red and tears were flooding, the only thing holding her back was Ryou and Jasper, mostly to prevent her from actively trying to murder him out of rightful rage. “So help me god in heaven if you rub this ‘victory’ in, I avow by heaven’s name that I _will murder you_ before Pegasus even gets a chance to…you…you…you fucking pawn!”

Katsuya walked up and shoved the duel disk into Seto’s hand “Get the fuck out of our sight.” He pulled back. “We have a tournament to get back to.” He walked over to the group just as Kajiki had finished fishing out five of the chips from their loot bag.

“Seto…Consider what Ryou and I are doing as an act of kindness.” Jasper steadied his breathing. “If we weren’t holding Lori back, she would have murdered you where you stand. Do you know why we’re not letting her beat you to death? Because we have a thing called humanity, we’re not cold-blooded like _some people_ , Seto Kaiba.”

Seto just turned and walked to the door, “I’ll save the remains for you.” He called back. “You have your starchips and backup starchips, you still qualify for your little game.” He barely flinched when Lorelei spat on the back of his jacket as he walked by. 

The group just watched in silent wait before they went to the door themselves – they wanted Seto to be at least a good way in before they entered the castle. Ten minutes before they got in, Mai showed up and Kajiki quietly explained the situation to her – she was just as disgusted as the rest of them and was ready to get out whatever the closet weapon she had and hunt Seto down and murder him where he stood. They went in as a group despite the suit saying what they did with the extra chips was an “illegal move”; not being in the best of moods, Suzie just murdered the guy right there reminding him of all the bullshit moves this island had been allowing since day one – allowing thievery to happen, ignoring card rules, having an eliminator possibly murdering people. If he didn’t want this shit to have happened, better rules should have been in place, but alas, everything was free game and so was looting PaniK’s insane flailing body after losing to Lorelei last night. When the man didn’t relent, Mai decided to tag team with Katsuya, she ‘flirted’ with the guy and had his guard down enough for Katsuya to punch out-cold. It was extra, but they needed to blow off the steam before they were able to enter the castle as one big group.


	14. Duelist Kingdom (Duel 6)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I should bring up a few things before we get started:  
> 1) It was a group call that Thief Bakura is not only an unlikely ally, but we're making him friends with Atem when they were younger (Mostly because Canon can suck a dick)
> 
> 2) Unlike the two amnesiacs, Thief Bakura seems to have more knowledge of the past than the two. So he's going to give what information he can remember to them
> 
> 3) Who want's to see Thief Bakura cry? Come on, you know you do.
> 
> Finally: DUDE WE'RE ALMOST DONE WITH THIS ARC AND THEN IT'S TO THE TWO VIRTUAL ARCS! THE LEGEND OF ZELDA KNOCK OFF AND THE FALSEBOUND KINGDOM! I'm so freaking excited!

To say that watching the match between Seto and Pegasus was a show everyone would have loved to see, in reality, it really wasn’t. Watching someone use family against them like they were nothing more but a puppet on strings, seeing Pegasus use that mind-reading ability on Seto and demolishing him with toons and a jack-in-the-box creature, even hearing Seto mutter “I’m Sorry” to his brother before becoming a soulless husk, it was heartbreaking. The aftermath of that duel left a lot of people in shock and horror that they couldn’t begin to comprehend what just happened and two of the people in the group knew what the power of the Millennium Eye held, they just didn’t think it would get this bad and in all honesty, this was a hurting time. What hurt even more was the dawning realization that Seto was no different than Yugi, Lorelei, Jasper, or Katsuya. All five of them were fighting for someone they loved (and this made Jasper and Lorelei feel even more like assholes after the harsh words they exchanged last night and earlier, would there be a way to come back from that? Probably not, Lorelei told Seto that she hated him and Jasper just up and told him to fuck off.). If Yugi’s shaking and tears brimming wasn’t enough to show the burning fire, the fact that not only did The Other Yugi showed up with that passionate hated look to Pegasus with his red-violet eyes, but also Mira’s appearance with her own bright acid green eyes. If looks could kill, this tournament would be over and the souls of the Kaiba brothers and Mr. Mutou would be back, as well as taking out that cursed eye of his. Even with them swearing vengeance on Pegasus, the announcement came that the finals would begin at dawn and explained how the finals would work.

Mira slid Katsuya her card of Glory of the King’s Right hand to Katsuya, she had the same blank card as Yugi so she wasn’t too worried. Once that was out of the way, the group was led to the dining hall where they would have dinner before bed – probably the two rare nice things Pegasus had arranged for the tournament. Upon entering the room, Mira froze at the sight of the paintings, there were two portraits; one was of a beautiful blond woman, and the other was a face that she had hoped to never see again – Shadi. Why did Pegasus have a painting of Shadi in his castle, were they friends? Was the whole reason that he challenged her was because Pegasus requested it of him? Her heart started to race at all the thoughts rushing through her, she was lost in the haunting painting she failed to notice Jasper’s hand on her. Freaking out just a bit, she turned and was ready to strike, she held herself back when she saw it was just Lorelei’s friend and relaxed some with a pained smile on her face; it was going to be okay, Jasper was safe, she made sure she would have him safe after that shadow game.

“He’s not here.” Jasper assured. “It’s just a painting.”

“Doesn’t really help my nerves, Pegasus knows him and who’s to say our host didn’t send him after the puzzle that day?” She looked back up to the painting. 

As Jasper was about to answer, Ryou showed up. At least, that’s what it looked like on the surface, a closer look at his eyes showed who was truly with them – those rusty blood eyes showing in place of the gentle chocolate brown ones they’ve come to known. Both Jasper and Mira narrowed their eyes slightly at the entity, why was Puppet Master out an about?

“Is everything alright you two?” He asked. “You look as though you’ve seen a ghost or two.”

“We know it’s you, Puppet Master.” Mira said quietly. “And frankly, we’re in no mood to deal with you.”

The Puppet Master shrugged. “I really wish you’d stop calling me that.” He looked up at the painting they were honed in on. “So, are you going to tell me what’s wrong or am I to interpret it from the image before us?”

Jasper shook his head. “Forgive us if we’re not inclined to tell you anything.” He looked at Puppet Master. “But if you truly must know, we’ve had a run in with that man and…”

Puppet Master gave an amused hum. “He was after Little Lori’s precious puzzle wasn’t he?” he smirked. “Or would you two rather I say ‘he was after Little Lori’s and Little Yugi’s precious puzzle’. It’s quite curious you two.”

“Will you stop being cryptic for five seconds?” Mira hissed. “I told you, we’re in no mood to deal with you.”

“Fine, we’ll regroup with the others.” He turned and went to the table. “Oh, and Mira…You, Other, and I are going to have a talk later tonight.” He turned his attention to the two slightly. “There’s one bit of information I require from both of you, and I want to hear it from the both of you as insurance.”

“And what’s stopping me from slamming a door in your face?” 

“Go right ahead, but keep in mind; a thief knows how to get through locked doors.” 

At least the soup was good, Keith was nowhere in sight – which was a blessing in itself. The conversation between the group was a little tensed; Seto and his family came up a handful of times, it was actually a mix of the stunts he pulled that wronged the group but at the same time there were some handful of good things, it was a shaking conversation at best – Lorelei mentioned that when she and Jasper were kids, they went to some gala with their grandma one year and met the brothers. “We didn’t become friends if that’s what you’re asking, but…they were tasked with entertaining us while the adults were doing whatever. We just hung out in a lounge and did our own thing – read and listen to classical music.” Of course, there was one other boy that was with them, but her memory was hazy. Jasper just shrugged when she looked at him. After that, the conversation about the brothers just dropped and they moved onto better things to talk about to try and lighten the mood some – Kajiki was telling the group about this huge marlin he caught, even showing pictures of the catch he had and posing next to his father about it. It was an amazing moment as well, especially seeing the father and son duo standing side-by-side and ready to clean the fish for dinner. After he was done it came to be Mai about her time as a blackjack dealer on a luxury cruise; it wasn’t the most glamorous job out there, but she got a kick in making people bleed out when they hit her table – and no, she didn’t even have to cheat there, the other players just sucked. She was hoping to win the prize money so she could start her step in the path of luxury, it was a little selfish, but she was fine with it.

Just as it was getting to more positive stories, the mood was instantly ruined by Pegasus’ version of a game. By some freak incident; six replicas of the Millennium Eye popped up in their soup, it was met to a lot of screaming – mostly from Mai, Katsuya, Lorelei, and Jasper (even more so when Katsuya and Jasper held onto each other and Lorelei throwing her chair to side to put distance between her and the eye.) Once the panic was over and Pegasus explained the Duelist Bingo; everyone was able to pop open the fake eyes and look at the letter they got before turning their focus to the screen before them; Mai and Yugi were the first to duel, then it would be Lorelei and Jasper, finally it would be Suzie and Katsuya. When Hiroto asked about the creep known as Keith, all Pegasus said was that he had a special place for him in this little game and that was it. Hardly anyone was eager to eat anything else after that, at least with dinner out of the way they were able to retire to their rooms for the night. The rooms were nice at least; a nice plush bed, warm covers, beautiful view of the outside gardens, a mini fridge, for a brief moment a lot of people forgot they were in a tournament and instead on vacation. It wasn’t until Lorelei laid on the bed for a while that she thought about what the Puppet Master had said, he was pretty keen in wanting to talk to both her and Yugi – or rather, keen in wanting to talk to Mira and Other Yugi about something. It sounded urgent, but after the incident in Monster World and the incident in the forest last night, it was hard to decide if she should trust his words or if she should just lock her door and push a dresser up against it to keep the malevolent spirit out of her room. She shot a silent glance to Mira who had the same thought as her, both looked at each other and let their shoulders drop in defeat; if Puppet Master had information, it was probably best to get them from him now before he did something cryptic and shady to get to them – and neither of them were in the mood to waking up with him looming over their bed.

Letting out a huff in annoyance, she grabbed her jacket and made her way to Yugi’s room, ignoring the fact she was in her pajama’s that night – A batman onesie of course, it was nice and warm for a short trip like this (and yes, it was the same one she wore when she camped in with Mai and Anzu in the tent last night.). Naturally, Yugi was surprised to see her, but after she told him they needed to talk and that the Spirit of the Ring might have information, he invited her in without any hesitation. As of now, they were sitting at a table and playing a round of go fish while they waited for the spirit; fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long at all.

“Care to deal me in?” came the calm and cold voice.

Both watched as the Puppet Master came sauntering in after closing the door and sitting at the table with them. Lorelei was the first to break the silence as Yugi reshuffled the cards and handed them out once more. “You said you wanted to talk, kindly present your case and we’ll go from there.”

“Mmm can’t tell if that’s you or Mira talking, you two are quite similar in a way.” The spirit chuckled. “Relax, I know it’s you Lorelei, your beautiful emeralds are still dark as ever compared to her bright ones.”

“You didn’t come here to flirt.” Yugi reminded – a bit harshly. “Lorelei said you had information for us regarding the puzzles?”

The spirit nodded and adjusted the cards in his hand, matching pairs with each other. “For starter, if either of you has a queen, I’ll gladly take it.” He watched as no-one made a move, he huffed and drew from the deck. “Let’s start at the beginning; tell me how you came about the puzzle.”

Yugi watched him carefully. “It came from my grandfather’s shop, he got it from an expedition in Egypt some odd years ago.” He took the threes from Lorelei. “I found the box when I was seven years old and my grandfather challenged me to solve it, eight years later and no luck. When Lorelei and I met for the first time, she saw the box I had, we talked and we agreed the two of us would solve it together – figuring it would be faster with two heads than one.”

Lorelei watched as the rust-eyes landed on her – she was happy to take the spirit’s Jacks and lay her first four pairs. “Naturally, we’ve had problems solving it, but we did get pretty far into it – despite a hiccup in the way. We were dealing with this jerk from school and he tried to extort money from us, when we wouldn’t comply, we…were left sore for some time. After we were hurting and stressed out the puzzle was actually easy to solve; which, the moment we did solve it was when the blackouts happened – of course, we now know that we had spirits taking over our bodies.” She drew the next card and shook her head. “We woke up the next morning and saw that the one puzzle we solved together split and became two.”

“Hmm...” Puppet Master nodded slowly at that. “I’ve only heard snippets of the conversation at the school, but it seems that you’ve been doing your homework on the Millennium Items, we’ll get to that at a later date; right now, let’s talk about paintings – Shadi is quite the character isn’t he?” he smirked when he saw her flinched. “Oh? Did I touch a nerve? Well now, tell the class what happened then.”

The rest of the game went by like that, Puppet Master would ask about certain events and they would answer – there were a few times Other Yugi or Mira had to step in and fill in the blanks, but aside from that, they were able to recount some of the stories. All the while, he just watched them with a calm expression and nodding along, he was taking in every little information that they were able to give him; with the game coming to an end, he laid his hand down and laced his fingers together and leaned forward on the table, leaning on his elbows; not once did he take his eyes off the two before him and the spirits that stood behind them with a warning look of their own – both were ready to jump in and take over if needed. 

“Well, with all this said and done, you two certainly made my job easier.” He started of slowly. “As I’ve said, I do have information on the Millennium Items, however I’ve also said that such will come at a later date. I’m only going to focus on the puzzles before you.” He lowered his gaze to the two gold pyramids. “As your little magician friend that my host has contacted said in his letter; _‘a kingdom made the puzzle and seven others through forbidden magic Shadow Alchemy and the ruler that had the puzzle last went missing.’_ ” He shrugged. “Of course, unlike your friend, I’m not under any such oath of such. So, the full story – which, you can do what you wish with it, it may help you or it may not, I’m only going from my own memory.”

“You clearly know more than Mira or Other Yugi.” Lorelei said. “Before you tell us about our puzzle, tell us about your ring. Dalimar-Shai said that the ring once belonged to a magician in his family and he clearly said you weren’t the said magician in question. Tell us that first.”

“Suppose it’s only fair.” The spirit had a bit of a forlorn gaze. “I should warn you; it’s been three thousand years and there’s some things I can’t remember myself; I do know of the magician that had this ring, we were an unlikely duo – friends, actually. We met when we were kids, I saw him one day and he was performing these spells; simple spells like moving a bucket in mid-air to make carrying water easier from the well. We talked and we became friends, even after he went to serve the Prince…Of course, me being…well me, I followed him to the kingdom and would always visit.”

“And then what?” Yugi asked softly. “We know he got the ring but…”

“I wish I could tell you; I know he met an untimely death and that the ring found its way to me.” He closed his eyes and took a few breaths. “And that’s all the backstory you two are getting, I don’t remember more. But I do know about your puzzles, so let’s get to that instead, okay? Good, let’s move on.” He gave a slight annoyed look when he saw Lorelei’s hand on his shoulder but opted to say nothing about it.

“Right, so the last holder of the puzzle was the prince.” He started out. “Officially, at least. He’s actually a twin; sometime after he came to the throne was when he inherited the puzzle…like the story goes he went missing but…seeing as you both have spirits; I think it’s safe to assume that ‘missing’ is actually just fancy talk of him being dead.” He watched them for a bit. “As I’ve stated, the Prince was a twin so naturally one would assume the puzzle went to his beloved sister, but she actually was by his side when he died…she died shortly after him.” He turned back to the two puzzles. “Which leads to this, you have the royal siblings with you and because both of them were holding the one and singular puzzle I have reasons to believe that the only reason you two solved it was because of what I’d like to call ‘soul compatibility.”

“Soul compatibility? What the fuck?” Lorelei demanded.

“It’s exactly what it is says; take Mira for example.” He looked up at her with a smirk. “You and her resemble each other, do you not? Not to mention, you both are similar in physical build – assuming she was a fighter in her life, you’re a fighter, she leads with determination, you follow determination; am I making sense?” he saw the reluctant nod. “Both your soul and hers are compatible, it’s why she’s able to bond with you.”

“Before you continue on with your soul theory?” Yugi spoke up. “You never explained why the puzzle fuses together at certain times? The one time was against Shadi, then it was when she faced you, and then it combined again and held both her and me when we faced Pegasus the first time.”

“That’s a really good question.” He chuckled. “My guess is this; since the Millennium Items can be used to find each other and the holders, someone was clearly looking for the Puzzle – Shadi for example, now…depending on the item will determine the power and seeing as we have two spirits; Mira and Other, though twins they’re quite different, but you already know that. One can mask the power of the puzzle to protect one person and that person was sure as hell not Lorelei.” He looked at her. “When Shadi entered town, the puzzle fused, my assumption is that it was Other trying to protect her the same way he did with Yugi…but given that Other and Lorelei are far too different…he put her in danger instead. Not once, not twice, but _three times_ did he do such.”

“It wasn’t his fault!” Mira shouted. “And we had a good handle on Pegasus before-”

“Oh, settle down.” He waved his hand dismissively. “I just told you that different Items had different powers; even if you two had managed to keep your holders safe from Shadi and Myself – barely, might I add, The Millennium Eye’s power is greater than the Key. It has the power to penetrate a person and their barriers; mind reading, soul stealing, shield breaking…the spell Other had in place was shattered the moment that duel began. Which, reminds me…” he stood up. “Did you know, if you defeat someone who wields a Millennium Item, you are entitled to the loser’s Item? I’d keep that in mind when you two face Pegasus. Right now, you two keep playing your game…I have some work to do tonight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what's to come in the future: New Characters, New settings, Fluffy moments, a new wardrobe, and new cards!


	15. Duelist Kingdom Finals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know...I've been looking over this project. I have 80 pages and 60,420 words of this...Fifteen Chapters. I suppose I can look at this and be like "Yeah, I got length I can write my original content with beautiful words like this" but at the same time...
> 
> Yugioh why? I tried to bullshit your games. I tried to be vague yet storyliney as possible...How did it get this far? What happened? What did I do to receive this much hurt? Had I not appease you by giving Yugi some mercy and sparing him from being a punching bag?
> 
> Edit: Decided to join the two finals into one...I have no control.

Lorelei looked herself in the mirror before her; dressed in a light-blue knitted sleeveless turtleneck top, white skirt, white stockings and her signature black boots. Donning on her flower accessory and butterfly necklace, she grabbed her bag and dragged herself to breakfast where everyone else was seated and enjoying a brief meal before the finals officially began and it was there she was pretty vague about last night – the others knew why though, the castle walls had ears and Hiroto was able to confirm this (and confirming that the Spirit of the Ring had to come bust him out of the dungeons…there was going to be a long talk on the way home wasn’t there?). Still, the agreement was simple; keep your friends close and your enemies closer, they weren’t certain if what the Spirit was saying had any truth to it as he was known to be deceptive, but they still couldn’t afford to let him out of their sight for even a brief second. Ryou had the same idea when he handed the ring to Kajiki – he assured Ryou that he would help keep an eye on it and if the Spirit tried anything from where he stood he was going to throw it out a window (probably wouldn’t work, but it couldn’t hurt to try). With that exciting breakfast, came the first duel Mai Kujaku vs. Yugi Mutou, to which the group wished the best of them good luck and even a good shoulder pat for encouragement. 

The duel was rocky to say the least of things; there was some serious conflict going on between Yugi and Other Yugi, it wasn’t that hard to see. Though not everyone was on the same page when it came to the explanation of what was going on, they had a general idea – there’s two entities that haunt their friends and they’re still a major mystery, but for the most part they’re okay with it. Weird, but they weren’t going to judge, the saying always goes that Truth is Stranger than Fiction so who were they to judge if their newfound friends were possessed by ancient jewelry? Of course, the fact that there was conflict going on between Spirit and Host in a duel was greatly concerning for everyone – that and there seemed to be something more brewing under the surface, fortunately, that is what Mai was here for. She immediately called him out on his nerves and provoked him enough to bring out the dueling spirit so he wouldn’t sight of it, she used Yugi’s own riddle against him back when Katsuya dueled her earlier, every little jab she made got Yugi returning to his ‘Viper state’ as Jasper affectionally called the duelist look, eventually it got to where Mai had him by mentioning a duelist’s Real Self. Those words hit like a full-force truck and from where Lorelei was standing, and the soft warmth of the puzzle she wore, it seemed as though Other and Yugi were finally connected and were actually going to duel together for this.

It was a really close battle, but in the end, Yugi came out on top with the Black Luster Soldier. The Harpy’s Pet Dragon was defeated and shortly after, Mai was defeated due to throwing the match – She didn’t want to see her Harpies destroyed like the dragon. Even with the forfeit, she was a pretty strong duelist and the group welcomed her into their arms, she ruffled some hairs and squeezed others in a hug (“I have been graced by the embrace of a siren, and I will happily sink to the bottom of the ocean for her” There really was something going on with Mai that makes a person fell to their knees, they weren’t sure what it was, but they weren’t going to complain.). Soon it was time for a quick break before the next round began; Katsuya vs. Suzie. To the side of the room; Yugi, Jasper, Mai, and Lorelei were huddled together and talking quietly about last night – as agreed with this morning, they were going to keep group meets like this quiet and in small circles. That, and they wanted to give Suzie and Katsuya time to get ready without any distractions that would throw them off their games.

“Yugi may have his spark back.” Mai started. “But what about you Lori?”

“What about me?” She raised an eyebrow at her.

“You’re in a similar predicament with Yugi.” She pointed to the puzzle. “It’s safe to say that you and your friend there are having your own struggles; I know how to read people; it’s how I’ve bled people out on cruises and it’s how I can manipulate the situation with perfume.” She reminded. “So, what are you going to do? You’re going to be facing your best friend when Katsuya’s duel is over and then it’ll be Yugi and whoever going up in a three-way gauntlet for the right to go after Pegasus, are you prepare to have your friend face him? Are you prepared to face him? Do you think Katsuya is prepared to face him?”

Lorelei looked away and crossed her arms, her nails digging into her forearms. “I’m terrified as shit.” She muttered. “It was easy in the Rose Garden – yes, I was scared there too, but…there wasn’t anything on the line, this is different Mai. We’re in a life or death situation now, and Mira’s stressing about how we’re going to handle Pegasus.”

“And you’re going to let that fear get in your way? You saw what happened in our duel, that inner struggle between Yugi and his spirit buddy.” She sighed. “Look, fear is natural, it keeps us alive…but if you’re willing to let fear get in the way of your dueling performance, you may as well just hand Jasper over to the wolves and turn your back on him.”

Jasper cleared his throat. “She has a point, Lori.” He looked at her. “You know how Pegasus plays; you saw how he used Seto’s brother to get to Seto himself, he went after Mutou-san to get to you and Yugi, and he’s still after you two; he’ll use _me_ to get to _you_.” He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Lorelei, I say this to you because I love you and have always seen you as a sister to me, but heed my words when I say I _will_ destroy you and your gravekeepers when we face each other. I will use that victory to take Mira and duel with Yugi if I have to if you back down from this now.”

“I never said I was going to falter.” She squeezed his hand. “Jasper, I’m scared…I’m not going to lie to myself, but if you think for one second that I’m going to let you beat me to prove a point you have another thing coming; there’s a reason I love Jason Todd, if he can come back from the dead like a majestic phoenix, so can I.”

“Then you better prove it.” Mai challenged. “Show me the ‘Red Hood’ that Katsuya is always calling you, bring him out into the light as you duel Jasper.” 

“No doubt our puzzles will join as one again, Lorelei.” Yugi reminded. “You and I are going to be dueling at the hip like twins as we did before this tournament begin. You trusted Jasper, Katsuya, and I with your gravekeepers and we’re going to need that teamwork when we face in the finals. I’m putting my trust in you, can you say the same as well? Or will you turn and go against your Batman?”

Lorelei let out a snicker. “Yugi, I’m sorry…but I don’t see you as Batman.” She shook her head and returned to seriousness. “But I give you my word that I won’t hold you back; you have my gravekeepers, and I have your Dark Magician and his allies.”

It was a tense conversation, but they got the points fined out before regrouping with the others just as Katsuya’s duel against Suzie began. At the beginning, it seemed as though things with Katsuya was in his favor and he was soaking up each life point count to Suzie’s 0 before it finally dawned on him that her entire strategy was to have her monsters in the grave to special summon her Judgement Dragon. He had forgotten all about it before it was too late and the dragon was on the field, the smirk from Suzie was enough for him to stick his tongue out; he wasn’t going to let this dragon hinder him that much – he had a little sister to win for and he also had Yugi’s grandfather to fight for as well (and also if he had some money set aside from the prize money, he was fighting for the right to treat Jasper out for a nice night…if it was feasible that it.) Duelist Kingdom wasn’t just another tournament, it was a place where you fought for the one you cared for and he was making that point here and now with everything riding on the draw of the next card; Time Wizard! By sheer luck or will, the time roulette landed within his favor and the dragon was no more – and with a nice blast from Red-Eyes and the duel was won in his favor. He and Suzie high-fived each other and hugged each other before going back to the group for another quick intermission while Lorelei and Jasper; and like before with the last four, Katsuya was beside Anzu, Suzie, and Kajiki discussing about the duel and about the outcome of the duel between the two friends. 

“I’m worried about them.” Anzu said softly. “From what we know, they’ve grown up together so they would know the other’s style of dueling…this is going to be a hard duel for them both.”

Kajiki nodded. “The blood of the covenant is stronger than the water of the womb.” He recited. “They’re the living proof of the saying, they’ve been through so much together that there’s a chance of this duel ending in a stalemate.”

“I don’t think so.” Suzie crossed her arms. “I’ve only just met them, but from what I know so far is that Jasper is going to go hard on Lorelei…he’s going to push her to the limits and he’s not going to show mercy about it. They both know what’s at stake and this is just another trial they’re going to have to face. Jasper may be ready, but Lorelei…I’m sorry, she talks big game, she’s a good duelist, but anyone with eyes can see she has her moments of stage fright.” She watched as Lorelei was shuffling her deck in the corner of a room. “And Jasper is going to shatter that barrier and get her out there as the duelist she probably is.”

Katsuya rubbed his cheek from where Lorelei had slammed him into the desk on their first meet. He’d argue about her playing a big game, but sparring is definitely different than dueling. He’s seen her plays and he knew that Suzie had a point about it – even in practice runs, he noticed the slight hesitation when she reaches for a card. If that was how Lorelei dueled without Mira, he was wondering how they would duel when they were together – with Yugi and Other Yugi, it took a lot of silent confrontations between them before they became a team. It was true that Lorelei and Mira were on communication level, but how close were they when it came to being a team as well? He shook his head and returned his attention to the group before him, they had their doubts and he didn’t blame them – hell, no-one knew about the spirits (well, there’s the Spirit of the Ring, but they weren’t going to call _him_ out just to ask “hey, how much of a team player is Mira?” Ryou was already tired as is, he didn’t need to have the spirit bother him for a while). 

“She’s a fighter.” Katsuya finally said. “Whatever Jasper is going to throw at her, she’s going to retaliate and pounce after him. She made that clear with the Player Killer; you saw how she taunted him like prey, she showed a bit of mercy by having Other Yugi mess with his mind and if she had her way, I’m pretty certain that any new fresh blood on those star chips would have found their way onto them.” He shook his head. “Stage fright maybe, but she’s still going to make it clear that she is the Queen of the Castle and she’s not going to let anyone tell her otherwise.”

The duel was about to commence and the two friends stood face to face, they had a silent conversation in their eyes before shaking their hands firmly and wishing the other luck and taking their spots in the arena. It was true that they knew each other’s playstyles – both relied on the graveyard for their aces, but this duel was a lot of different; since they had their own rooms, they adjusted their decks ever so slightly while keeping to their original theme to throw the other off. Jasper still had Athena and his fairies, but he also was using his beloved Avenging Knight Parshath and the ability to switch a monster that Lorelei controlled, he went for defense to inflict piercing battle damage to her. It was as if Suzie had said, he was charging at her with no mercy, but like Katsuya had also pointed out – Lorelei made it clear as to who she was; she is Red Hood, she is the Queen of the Castle, she was going to hit twice as hard and she did with a beloved of her own to take care of Jasper’s Knight – Magician of Black Chaos MAX. All she had to do was tribute her Gravekeeper Spy she had summoned with the help of Double Summon to keep his knight from switching her magician to defense position. Wide open and ready to be knocked off his final 200 LP, Jasper held his arms out and welcomed the attack, to which she did by having the Magician destroy the fairy. Both just smiled at each other, there was no hesitation from either side and they both went hard and fought tooth and nail for the rightful spot in the finals. Giving a silent hug and a soft whisper of good luck, they returned to the group and it was time for the special game Pegasus had for Bandit Keith.

The game was relatively simple, he just had to draw a high-level card from the face downs before him and if he did, he could join and duel with the remaining three. If he couldn’t, he was to leave the island effectively and immediately. Being cocky, Keith had no problem in accepting the challenge – of course, naturally he lost by drawing a level-one monster. Pegasus chuckled and tried to have his guards escort the man, but to no luck – Keith had pulled out a gun and had it aimed at the silver-haired man…what happened next, well…all the group heard was a gunshot and a thud, no-one wanted to lift their faces to see the aftermath. They all knew one thing though; Pegasus was still standing and he announced the lunch break before the rest of the finals began. How could he even think about food after someone was just _shot_?! Still, they had to admit that it wasn’t entirely a smart move to eat on an empty stomach, they would just eat enough to keep their energy up but that was it, hearing the sound of a body hitting the floor like that got everyone’s hearts sinking like a tar pit.

 *****  
  
“The final match will begin momentarily.” 

The original idea was to have a three-way duel, but Katsuya backed out and gave Lorelei her card back. He wanted the money for his sister, there was no doubt about it…but prolonging the fight wasn’t going to help at all, Yugi and Lorelei had to face the final march while their spirits were still heated and the three-way wasn’t going to help at all. The group was back together as a huge gang, they made sure the only thing that could be heard were words of encouragement as well as helping the two ease their nerves, under the surface however, they were holding up notecards to each other with phrases on them. Hiroto held a card up about why he was absent most of last night and most of the day; he and Ryou were actively trying to get to the Kaiba brothers, the good news they had found Mokuba but the bad news was that Seto was elsewhere in the castle. Ryou’s card simply read ‘Make sure you’re clear with your demands, ‘djinns’ are literal creatures and if you’re not careful…Pegasus will ensure you suffer.’ Needless to say, both were putting a lot of pressure on their shoulders, but they were still going to march head on; if on the offhand chance the Spirit of the Ring was telling the truth about the two spirits being royalty, they were going to storm to the arenas like the Prince and Princess they were. They were going to knock the ruler of this castle off his throne and they were going to take great delight in it.

“My, my, my! Little Lori and Little Yugi joined at the puzzle again, just like old times!” Pegasus clapped. “I’ve watched your progress and I must say you’ve grown as duelists, I’m so proud of you two!”

“Hold it right there.” Other Yugi spoke up. “We had a deal; before we begin, I want your solemn word that when Lorelei and I defeat you that you’ll return the soul of my grandfather and the souls of the Kaiba brothers.”

“Oh? The Kaiba brothers? I thought for a moment you hated him.” Pegasus chuckled. “But I can honor that wish for you of course.” He turned his gaze to Lorelei for a minute. “That covers his conditions, what about yours? Surely you have something in mind for a prize or two.”

 _< Did you know, if you defeat someone who wields a Millennium Item, you are entitled to the loser’s item?>_ The Puppet Master’s words rang in her head. She didn’t really want to touch that golden-eye of his, but if she could get it away from Pegasus, it would be one less threat of a Millennium Item being used against them. Of course, he also did say that she was entitled to a prize and if the Item is one, who’s to say she can’t be greedy just this one time?

“There’s a few things a girl has in mind.” She started off slowly. “As the creator of Duel Monsters, you’re able to promote stores and such, right? Something to fit the image of your company?” she watched him nod. “A little advertising to the shop we live in would be nice, can’t go wrong there.” Other Yugi just stared at her. “And I am trying to be healthy so I would like you to pay for my Fruchie pouches every month, and what else…” She snapped her finger. “Your Millennium Eye as well.”

Silence fell before Pegasus started laughing. “Such high stakes!” he turned to his men. “Do get a medic here to be safe, Little Lori is aiming for the jackpot of all prizes, I suppose we could humor her on her request. After all, I am a man of my word.” He turned back to the two. “Very well, you both have made your requests that will be honored should you win. Of course, you know there’s a catch for you both should I win.” He held up the blank cards in his hands. “Should I win, and I have confidence that I will, not only do I have free access to the shared puzzle but also to your souls as well.”

That got both to flinch a little bit. It was a risky gamble, but there really was no alternatives to the route; both Other Yugi and Mira agreed to the terms and shook on it before taking their seats and beginning the duel. The match of the Millennium.

***  
**

Keep a clear mind and don’t overthink your moves. Keep a clear mind and don’t overthink your moves. That was the mantra the two tried to tell themselves at the start when they tried playing safe. Perhaps, they should explain; at the start of the duel they were able to mix their cards together for one big deck – unlike with the labyrinth twins, they were able to use all of their cards into one. They each had their own hand and they could look at the other’s shoulders; so far, they had a decent hand, there wasn’t anything huge and risk taking that would hinder them in the slightest. At least, that’s what they believed before Pegasus had destroyed their Beaver Warrior was demolished by a mermaid and a well-placed counter ahead of time. It was a minor setback; it was only the first move after all right? Nope, even when Mira tried to trick Pegasus with a trap of her own and the use of her own monster as bait, he still swapped the tides. Hearts were racing at this point, it wasn’t like before when their last shadow game involved subliminal clips on a tape, this was different, they were in person and he was able to read their minds with every step of the way. They weren’t going to falter though; Seto had made it far before, he discarded his hand and let everything to chance when he drew his cards and it helped him…before he lost, but that play could only go for so long before it bit them in the ass. That plan was out. Maybe just a quick glance and then immediately clear their mind, it was worth a try.

Wishful thinking, the moment Toon World came to play on the field was when things got to hell. As long as the card was on the field there was no getting to Pegasus’ monsters and theirs were just sitting ducks, not only that, those blasted toons could only be defeated by another toon! Okay, no…just keep it together, the reassuring shoulder squeeze from Other Yugi brought Mira to the now, she had monsters that could destroy any card on the field with an effect, the trick was to get them out. And what kind of Queen would she be if she was unable to find a way out of a tough bind like this. She smiled to Yugi and nodded to him; her cards were hers, use them well ‘Brother’ (Assuming if the spirit was telling the truth about the two spirits being related). Other Yugi nodded and tried a new method of playing, if they couldn’t attack, they could use defense – ha! Wishful thinking with that Gorgon’s Eye and a new Toon Summoned Skull attack. 

Tension wasn’t the only thing on the field, there was some back up in the peanut gallery. Kajiki gently shook Ryou’s shoulder and held the ring to him. “Alright, let’s get information from him.” His voice had a tinge of defeat in it.

“We’ve been doing so well without his help too.” Ryou sighed and put the ring on. “Alright you, behave yourself.” 

With that said, the Spirit came out, he stretched and leaned on the rails and looked down at the scene before him. He had a scowl on his face, what were the twins doing?! They were behind in the score and they’re dueling quite sloppy, didn’t his advice mean nothing? He told them that the Millennium Eye had barrier shattering abilities including mind reading, they should have had their strategy planned out before going to bed! Closing his rust brown eyes, he took a few breaths to settle himself. Take a deep breath now, they’re the Royal Twins, they’ve made it this far, they can take this man down. 

“Okay Spirit, start talking.” Katsuya demanded. “How does one go about getting by the Millennium Eye?” 

“Hm…” he looked over at him. “A curious question, Flame Swordsman.” He smirked at the scowl. “It’s been three thousand or five thousand years, give or take, since I’ve last encountered the eye.” He tapped on the rail. “Let’s see they could…no…Mira’s shadow magic isn’t as strong as Other’s.” he hummed. “What about…no, that won’t work either they would be shot if she tried that.” 

“Are you trying to say there’s no way they could get out of this?” Mai demanded. 

“Are you trying to put words in my mouth?” The Spirit looked at her. “I never said they can’t get around the eye; I’ve told your friends this that the Millennium Eye is able to break through barriers – mind reading for example. And clearly the two heads are better-” he trailed off; his eyes were widened with realization.

Of course! He and Ryou were two minds in one body, same as Lorelei and Mira, Yugi and Other Yugi! Pegasus wasn’t dueling two separate minds; he has four minds to deal with! Now the next question is; will either of the four realize this and use that information to their advantage? Jasper looked over at him and shook the Spirit’s shoulder to get his attention, he was just greeted with a mischievous grin on his face – so the spirit figured something out after all, and the nod to the two players was all that was needed to get Jasper on the same page as him. Little by little, the others were awakened to the same dawning realization that they came up with.

“Other…Do you have a tuner in your hand?” Mira asked in a meek tone, the solemn shake of his head confirmed it. “I was afraid you were going to say that.” 

Things didn’t really look good after that – actually, that was a lie. A twist of fate had happened after Other had played a combo with the Magical Hats and the Dark Magician, just as Pegasus thought he had the Dark Magician dead and gone, he was wrong. Instead of Other, the one who stood next to Mira was the original Yugi, a wave of confusion brushed over her at first before it settled in – Two Minds, Two Bodies. With that in mind, the game was going to start for real; each time either of the two played a card they would switch to the other soul to keep Pegasus from reading their minds, they trusted their spirit companions and they trusted that this strategy would turn the duel around in their favor. And it did; a few hidden traps here, a reveal of the magician, a spell to destroy Toon World and one summoning of Gravekeeper’s Visionary was all it took to bring Pegasus to his knees. Both Yugi and Lorelei hugged each other and whispered their congratulations to each other before turning back to their opponent, they were almost in the homestretch now, they had this under control! 

That’s what they believed until Pegasus decided to take the game into the Shadow Realm a place where the monsters were real. It was more strenuous than a normal duel. Even though the Spirits could handle it and keep the ethereal form of the monsters, their mortal hosts were struggling and if the sight of Lorelei clutching her chest was anything to go by, both Yugi and Lorelei were going to be suffering so long as they were in the open. Their soul switch wouldn’t work in this round, but through persistence, they kept the strategy until one or both mortals fell and the spirits had to take over. Seeing the unconscious bodies of Yugi and Lorelei not only threw the viewers under great stress (including the Spirit of the Ring surprisingly), but also their spirit companions. The two spirits were on their own with the last unknown card that Yugi had played face down. The duel wasn’t entirely in their favor at first, but the heated fury in their hearts and the willpower of their dear friends (some who were ready to rush over and sucker punch Pegasus), they managed to block out the mind-reading ability once more, and to top the duel off with a delicious victory – The Magician of Black Chaos (and help of the adorable furballs named Kuriboh, but those were just the bonus points). With the duel over and done with, Pegasus lowered his head in defeat and gave a small applause to the duo before him with a soft chuckle. 

Pegasus himself couldn’t believe it, he lost in a game he created. He lost despite having the advantage of reading the minds of his opponents. He lost to those who hold a Millennium Item as well. He had to admit, after everything that he’d thrown their way from using those they cared about into pawns to hiring a professional killer – of course, he was questioning that choice – he was actually proud of those two. Perhaps Shadi was onto something after all when he told him about the items so many years ago. Still, he was a man of his word and he was going to honor the requests that the two had called for; first was releasing the souls of the three he had captive, the next was just nodding to his men who went off to get the rest of the prizes organized, and finally a nod to the medical staff who was getting everything ready for the removal of the Millennium Eye. 

“We have time before the procedure.” Pegasus started off. “You two are quite something; I’ve seen the minds and souls of many with my Millennium Eye. I’ve seen the fire burning within you, I’ve seen your desires, I’ve seen it all except two souls in one body.”

“Stop while you’re ahead.” Mira said softly. “You’re starting to sound like someone I’ve met, and I’d rather not visit that memory lane again.”

“Even he couldn’t figure you out, and he was the one who gave me the eye.” He laid a hand by his golden one. “Neither of you two know the evil powers nor the evil intelligence of the items?” he moved his gaze to where Ryou was. “Here I thought you had an ally in the knowledge of them.” He watched as the duo narrow his eyes at him. “Yes, I know of your conversations…you’re not the most subtle of groups.”

“I’d suggest you start to explain yourself.” Other Yugi demanded. “How did you get the eye, where does Shadi play in all of this, tell us everything. Now.”

It’s as Pegasus had said, they had time before the eye would be removed. Pegasus sat back and gave the story of how it happened; the beautiful woman in the halls, his beloved Cyndia who passed from this world at the tender age of seventeen. Seven years of grief had not only brought him to Egypt, but also to the mysterious man named Shadi. Time to slow down, he was there due to his fascination of life after death and he wanted to see if there was anything that could do something about bringing his beloved back to him, but in the process he met the strange man who wore the key around his neck and ignoring any warnings, he had followed him to a tomb where a slab was that held precious gold items. Items like the eye he wore and items like the ring that caused a man to burn up in flames. Just the mention of the Millennium Ring got a lot of unsettled reactions, Ryou especially as he squeezed onto Suzie’s hand in a vice grip and tried to settle his breathing. Mira shot a concern look over to Ryou before returning her attention to the story at hand. 

After witnessing something he wasn’t supposed to, Pegasus went through the trial of the Millennium Items and had the eye given to him. If he had failed the trial – well, he wouldn’t have been here, now would he? One thing had led to another, he was aiming to combine the solid vision that Seto was working on and the powers of the other Millennium Items to bring his beloved back. Of course, right now, it was time for the rest to head off and do their thing while he…had an eye to be removed.

*****

“How are you two holding up?” Jasper asked. “Earlier you had a heart attack.” 

Lorelei and Yugi looked over before shrugging; they were in control as their little spirit buddies were hiding out in the puzzles (most likely to process everything they’ve learned so far). The tension of the room was pretty high, they saw the souls being set free and they were waiting on their friend to wake up – Mokuba, a courtesy of Puppet Master’s and Hiroto’s late night adventure in the dungeons saving a hostage. Not only that, they were waiting for the suits to come in and say that they had their prizes lined up so they could head off the island.

“We’re fine.” Yugi assured. “We’re just worried about Mira and Yami – I…that was the name I’ve given him.”

“They’re still hiding out?” 

“Well, Mira is.” Yugi looked at Lorelei. “Yami’s trying to get her to come around, but I don’t think it’s working all that well…I’m pretty certain I heard her threaten to stab someone.”

“Can you blame her?” Kajiki asked. “From what Miss Kujaku and I have learned is you guys have been going through this for a year now? A year and a half? Some time without any progress on your Millennium Mystery, to Mira, she probably feels like you’re back at square one and she’s stressed.” 

“And our only help is the equivalent of the Cheshire Cat.” Hiroto pointed at Ryou’s ring. “Knows all but never tells all, how helpful is that?!”

“Please don’t ever compare him to that character ever again.” Ryou huffed. “Still, he has limited memory on things as well; I’ve tried talking to him whenever a duel was going on – just to see if I couldn’t get him to spill something; I’ve asked him who he was, what Egypt was like, just casual questions, and the only thing I’ve learned from him was that he wasn’t just a thief…He was the King of Thieves.”

Mai gave a dry laugh. “Okay everyone, check for your wallets and make sure nothing is missing!”

“Oh hush.” Puppet Master hissed. Everyone flinched when they saw the spirit taking over Ryou for the moment, “Since you’re all dying to know about me, why don’t I tell you instead; yes, I was indeed the King of Thieves when I was alive and yes, I was friends with a royal magician. I hung out at the palace but never once did I steal from the royal family. That’s it, that’s my tragic backstory. I died; I woke up three thousand years later inside the body of an occult fetish teenager!”

“ENOUGH!” Mira screamed. “Can we _**please** _just stop talking about the fucking items for one second! We’re just going in circles again! We’re nowhere near finding out who the fuck Other – Yami – whatever his fucking name is, myself, or Puppet Master is, we don’t even know where the rest of the items are located or what we’re supposed to do!” she sat on the balcony and hid her face in her arms. “Can we just admit that we’re fucking stuck here?”

Silence filled the room for a moment before Anzu finally spoke up. “I think we’re going about this all wrong.” She looked at Puppet Master. “Instead of trying to unlock hidden memories, maybe we can use the now to figure things out.”

“Do kindly share with the class then, Anzu.” He said. “Where do we start?”

“Okay, I’m not well versed into this series like Yugi is but…You guys know about Kingdom Hearts, how Ventus looks like Roxas despite being two separate entities. Roxas is Sora’s Nobody, Ventus became a part of Sora’s heart.” She explained. “Puppet Master, you mentioned that Mira and Lorelei were two similar souls but different and I think…this is the same case. Mira is Ventus and Lorelei is Sora. Yugi is Sora and Yami is Ventus.”

“You’re saying we should look at what makes Lorelei, Ryou, and Yugi who they are and apply it to the past.” Jasper’s eyes lit up. “Anzu, you’re a genius! We might be able to narrow the field on this mystery after all, God I could kiss you right now!”

“Don’t, you don’t want to make Katsuya jealous, do you?” She smirked.

“If it helps, Ryou’s father is closing a deal with the Domino Museum.” Suzie smiled. “We can work on getting information from there as well.”

That was the plan they agreed on, and that was the plan they would go off of. With Mokuba back on his feet and with Yugi and Lorelei receiving a check, a box that held the eye (“Ryou, please hold onto it for us – we don’t want to touch that thing”), as well as a contract signed for the other two prizes. The group could finally leave the island – after they went to find Seto first. Fortunately, he was by the helicopter waiting for everyone to show up and to a much-needed relief; there was life in him. Light in his eyes, healthier glow to his body, just everything about him screamed that he was alive – unlike when he was still standing and had the hollowed look in his eyes from that particular duel from earlier. Seto Kaiba, though still the same, he looked like a new person!

“Seto…” Lorelei walked up to him. “Listen, Jasper and I…we have to talk to you.” 

“Save it.” He pointed to the helicopter. “Just get in.”

“We’re trying to own up for what we said back at the castle.” She gritted out.

“I know, save it.” He repeated.

“I mean, we told you we hated you and we wanted to kill you?” Jasper pointed out. 

Seto sighed. “Which wouldn’t had happened if I had just accepted the loss.” He crossed his arms. “Are we just going to stand around reminding each other of our past or are we going to get on the damn craft and head home?”

“You’re still an asshole.” Lorelei hugged him once. “But I’m glad you’re safe.” She got onto the craft with the others.

Jasper nodded and bowed his head in respect. “It’s good to have you back on your feet again Seto, and I do mean it when I say that Lorelei and I regret the harsh things we’ve said to you last night.”

“You’re doing it again.” He huffed. “Get it through your head; Pegasus is done, my brother is safe, you have your family back, isn’t that enough? Do you have to dwell on the past? The Past is called the past for a reason, you move on from it, stop dwelling on it.” He climbed into the pilot side. “Now get your ass in here before I fly without you.”


	16. Lorelei Pictures Round 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which the Panda uses her amazing style in Love Nikki and uses the game to create her characters and her characters' friends! :D

So! With the help of Love Nikki, I decided to make Lorelei Royal our beautiful girl from this Retelling: The only difference is I don't think I have any makeup that has Green Eyes nor do I think I have any dark navy hair...so I just improvised. That's what you do when you have what you have. 

So As of now, her style is Pure (anything) and as we go along, we're going to branch from Pure into other realms. But for now, enjoy "Little Lori" 

Lorelei Royal in Day 2 of the Duelist Kingdom Tournament

Behold Lorelei in her Duelist Kingdom Finals Attire


	17. Shadi Vs. Yugi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta Da! I told you I would go after Yugi next ^_^

Yugi waved his friends off for the day. Lorelei had a “not-date” with Ryou, and Jasper was going to the hospital with Katsuya to see about Shizuka’s operation – now that they had the funds to work with, and his mom was still by his Grandfather’s side. Granted, his grandfather was back on his feet now that he had his soul back, but the doctors wanted to keep him for a bit just to make sure everything was fine in the end. It was just him alone with the two spirits – the puzzle had rejoined as one, unlike the last few times where it was life threatening, Mira had wanted Lorelei to have some time alone – Yugi decided to use this time to get to know both of the spirits of the puzzle. Amnesiac maybe, but there had to be something the two spirits remember enjoying right?

That’s how it ended up in the three sitting by the TV and playing some Sonic games. He had to admire the two spirits and their fascination with the games they’ve been introduced to directly or indirectly, he even had to laugh to the side when Mira came out to try her hand at Sonic Colors – she kept moving her body along with the characters and it was so funny to watch, especially with her concentrating scowl on her face. Still, for an ancient spirit, she had perfect timing and kept getting high ranks on each level and because of this she got Yami to come out to try and best her scores. Yugi just stayed to the side and watched the two spirits to go after each other both when playing and whipping through the story and levels (and when they’d return to the puzzle to try and physically go after the other…maybe the Spirit of the Ring was onto something after all when he mentioned the two were related. He could definitely see it from here.)

“Come on you two, if you don’t stop fighting, I won’t get the next game out.” He scolded.

Both just fell quiet and turned away from him. They were definitely related if they acted like this when scolded; still, Yugi found it adorable. He was now curious as to how much of a hellraiser they were when they were alive, but that would have to come at a later date since right now he had a Sonic marathon to go through with the two.

“You should get something to eat, Yugi.” Mira brought up. “We might not need the food, but you do…go get something to eat and we can play more in a bit.” She huffed and crossed her arms. “We won’t get into another fight.” she assured.

Yugi smirked and stood up. “That’s what I thought.”

They did have a point though; he did need to get something to eat before they could continue playing. That was one of the things he’d noticed whenever one of the spirits would take over, he’d been feeling his energy kind of drained – actually, that was only when Mira took over. Perhaps it was because it was taking some more energy to take over and it caused him to either be tired or hungry – he made a memo to contact Dalimar-Shai about spirits and their effect when they took over a living person. Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he started to work on a simple pasta dish – he wasn’t entirely hungry to make a big meal and he wasn’t even certain when the others would get home either so it was definitely best to go simple for now and just get up again later than making a huge feast. 

As he finished with the cooking and returned to the living room to enjoy intermission, he noticed that the air of the place felt off. The spirits weren’t around and were quiet and still, even with the TV going and playing the main menu music for Sonic Colors there wasn’t a single sound to be heard. Setting the bowl down, Yugi grabbed the closest thing for defense – a broom and slowly made his way around the room to assess what was happening. Starting with the room he was in; the living room was empty, there didn’t seem to be a sign of anyone in the room with him, the next place to check out was the store bellow and like before, there wasn’t anyone there and nothing was out of place – inventory was fine, register was okay, safe was locked up tight, blinds were closed. Nothing was out of the ordinary in the living room or the game store.

Kitchen could be ruled out since he was in there cooking not too long ago. That just left the bedrooms, he started with the guest room where Lorelei and Jasper resided; the room was neat and organized, a desk was sitting by the window and had homework on it. Both sides had their personal effects and what made them who they were, everything seemed to be settled here – Mira wasn’t even acting up if that was anything to go off of. His parents’ rooms were cleared too, nothing out of the ordinary there either. All that was left was his room. Taking a breath of air, he pushed the door opened slightly and froze up on the spot – standing by his desk was a man in white robes and turban, from an angle, he could see a bit of a gold key around his neck. Shadi. What was he doing here!? Yugi tightened his hold on the broom and quietly crept up behind him, this could work, one swift whack and he could get him unconscious long enough to call for Jasper or Lorelei.

Sensing someone behind him, Shadi turned and waved his hand, sending a paralyzing wave over his attacker. A boy? Suppose he shouldn’t really be this surprised, people of this world were unique – such was the case of Lorelei Royal and her puzzle that was around this boy’s neck. His eyes narrowed at the sight, he’s seen the soul rooms of the girl and her friend Jasper, this boy had shown up in them yes…but that didn’t really explain the fact he had the girl’s puzzle. Then again, Pegasus had surrendered his eye, he wouldn’t be surprised if this boy was connected in some way. Perhaps it was time for a visit into his soul room.

*****

Another individual with two soul rooms? First it was that girl and now this boy? Shadi shook his head and looked into the opened room; bright light and toys scattering the floors, he’s just as innocent as he appeared to be…the door across from him was a familiar one – it belonged to the Other Lorelei, taking a breath of air he walked in and was greeted to a familiar sight, except the figure before him was similar to the boy, save for the red violet eyes, sharper points to his hair, and gold in his hair. The sharp gaze and sneer were enough to let Shadi know that this particular spirit was going to be more malevolent than the Other Lorelei.

“I thought Mira made it clear you were not invited in our soul room ever again.” The male snapped.

Shadi kept his composure still. “Is that the Other Lorelei’s name?”

“Even if it was, she doesn’t want you in here…and frankly I don’t blame her.” He narrowed his eyes. “Heed my warning now, Shadi, I won’t hesitate to kill you if it means protecting the boy whose body I share.”

This spirt meant business, he had to be careful with his choice of words. “I mean no harm in my visit.” He started out. “I understand that you don’t believe me, I wouldn’t believe myself if I were you. I’m only here because of a disturbance within the stars, Pegasus had lost the Millennium Eye.”

“We did win rights to the eye.” The spirit confirmed. “Of course, me telling you this change nothing; you’ve wandered in here uninvited and ignored Mira’s wishes, you’ve just walked into another Shadow Game.” 

He was afraid the spirit was going to say that. The game was the same as last time, find the true room and you could go free. It was a fool’s game, but he had confidence that he would find it this time around. After all, if he had learned anything from his game with Mira is that things weren’t what they appear to be and that she was an amnesiac. The true room was through unity – or so she claimed, so he just had to find the room that had memories of people the spirits loved and cherish (in this case it would have to be their hosts and the hosts’ friends). It would be simple; he just had to avoid the traps and keep focus – the traps were another thing, unlike Mira’s with fire and brute force, this spirit was more sadistic with his traps. He lost count how many spring traps he triggered and had to dodge to avoid being impaled by a well-placed ax or pendulum blade. If he wasn’t dodging a blade, he was dodging poisoned darts being shot at him from a wall when he entered a room. 

One room he nearly fell for again was when he saw a throne in the center, he knew if he took a step forward that the floor would collapse under him again. Shadi just ignored the room and backed off, he sighed and went to turn and leave until he heard a click. Freezing and looking around he found himself in a web of wire, one false move could have him sliced swiftly and cleanly. 

“Spirit enough!” a young voice called. “Leave him be!”

The wires fell and Shadi was freed, he looked over at the boy beside him. It was the same youth from before, he felt relieved that he was here to keep the spirit from trying to rid of him. The boy took his hand and guided him back to the main hall of the labyrinth before sitting on a stair and looking at him with a tired and an annoyed expression on his face.

“You’re Shadi, right? Lorelei mentioned you.” He said softly. “Why are you here?”

Shadi sat beside him and let his shoulders drop. “I was investigating the cause of Pegasus’ Millennium Eye, in my investigation I found that Lorelei and Mira had hidden a piece of information from me. I suppose I was morbidly curious as to what else the two had kept hidden.”

“You mean me and Yami.” Yugi narrowed his eyes. “She didn’t want us involved, and frankly…after what she’s told us about you, I don’t blame her. You nearly caused her best friend to hang himself.”

“If memory serves me correctly from when I visited her soul room; you’re a new face to her, a host family? She barely knows you and she was willing to keep you safe from others. Why is that she’s willing to protect a stranger?”

“We started out as strangers when we first met.” He confirmed. “But she’s family to me, Jasper is family to me. I’m glad to call them my friends as well as my family, and honestly if I could turn back the hands of time, I would go back to keep them safe from you on _that_ day.”

The two stayed in silence for a moment before a door opened and a light was shining from it. They silently looked at each other in confusion, it wasn’t the spirits at work – they weren’t even anywhere near the two of them, it had to be the puzzle’s will. Strange, but who were they to argue, both wanted answers to their own little mysteries and there was no way they were going to turn down the invitation given to them. Inside the room were stone tablets of duel monsters, Yugi looked around confused and even traced the image of some of them. He looked to Shadi for an explanation, and he did; he explained how over thousands of years ago, Egyptian kings played games that waged war on the world – shadow games. They brought forth monsters from the dark realm and had them fight alongside them, of course…such power was too much and the Pharaoh had to lock the powers away. From everything that Shadi mentioned, it lined up with what the Spirit of the ring and what Dalimar-Shai had said; all this seemed to stem from Shadow Alchemy and the power got too great for anyone to handle. This just seems to tack on more questions than answers, but…looking around the stone tablets that resembled their Duel Monsters, perhaps instead of turning to the past for such, it truly was best to turn to the present day, especially since it seemed that History was repeating itself.

Another glow interrupted them, slowly turning to the source, the two found themselves face to face with the Dark Magician. Was this room another trap? No, that can’t be it…the puzzle allowed them in, so why was the Magician honed in on them…oh wait…he was more honed in on Shadi than he was on Yugi. The puzzle would allow Yugi into this sacred room, not the intruder in question. Intruder or not, Shadi still didn’t deserve to have fire balls sent directly at him. So, Yugi got between the two and assured the magician that the strange man wouldn’t reveal anything he had learned in this room to others – it seemed to have worked as the magician lowered his staff and allowed them to leave in one piece. 

*****

**Thwack!**

Yugi held the broom close as he watched the strange man hold his head in pain, he may have had a shred of mercy to save him from Yami’s wrath, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let him get by with a stunt like this again. 

“I suggest you leave; I don’t want Yami or Mira trying to come after you again.” He warned.


	18. Disney Date

Jasper had lost track on how long it had been since Duelist Kingdom; so far, everything had returned to normal – he was in the flower arrangement club and Lorelei had taken up in joining the volleyball team this year. That was their new normal; school, extracurricular activities, homework, and game nights that would sometimes delve into movie nights if everyone wasn’t in the mood to play a game or two. If they weren’t doing any of those, they were instead taking shifts at the game shop – and signing autographs for the younger customers (Jasper still had to laugh whenever a little girl asked if it was true that she punched Bandit Keith in the face – out of everything that was leaked to the public the moment of his friend going Red Hood on the former bounty player was one of the most memorable things from the island). Of course, not everything was that stressful; they had made amazing friends from the tournament and they were still in contact with them – Kajiki had posted in the group chat a new boat that he had scored, it wasn’t the huge fancy one that he had in mind, but he was still proud of it. And that was another thing, whenever Kajiki wasn’t fishing, he was usually sailing and relaxing with the waves. There were days he would show up and hang out with Jasper and the two just clicked in their own weird way (probably because Jasper and Kajiki got along with watercolor nights and once spent a drunken night doing Bob Ross videos – they’re still wondering how they got a beautiful watercolor koi painted with neat lines and everything). 

Of course, that was his normal life. As for Lorelei, he had to admit he was actually impressed with how she and Yugi have been handling things; they’ve developed a way to communicate with their spirit buddies, and they’ve been looking into how to protect themselves from Shadow Magic should they deal with another round like Pegasus again. When they weren’t bothering with the magical aspect of things; Lorelei was with her team and was keeping up with physical activity, writing on her spare time and revisiting some of her favorite games. Lately though, Jasper had noticed something different when it came to her routine – actually, he’d noticed this for a while – whenever she was writing or visiting her dating sim games there was always a pattern with her stuff, at the beginning he figured she just had different types. But now…they were starting to leak out here, he wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t tempted to figuring out what was up, but he respected her and figured she’d tell him on her own terms. Terms like today where she was getting dressed up and flaring her blouse out for like the umpteenth time in a row today.

“Someone’s looking dressed up.” He pointed out. “What’s the occasion?”

Lorelei froze a little and played with a strand of hair. “Well, I’m going on a date with Ryou.” She started out. “I mean, it’s just an outing…it’s not like it’s a date/date, it’s just…we’re going to go for a walk.” 

“Does this ‘just for a walk’ have to do with anything else?” He walked up and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Lori, what’s on your mind?”

She looked up at him and let out a breath of air. “Don’t take this the wrong way, I’ve been meaning to tell you but…I wasn’t certain how to word it.” She started. “I’m poly, and back on the island I found out Ryou was also…so, Suzie said I could try the whole date Ryou thing and see where things end up.”

“Wait…” Jasper just stared blankly. “Was I supposed to believe that you were monogamous?” he smirked at her surprised look. “Lori, you’re about as subtle as Jason Todd was in stealing the hubcaps off the Bat Mobile – which is to say, not at all.” He laughed. “But seriously, I had figured you were poly, I just thought it was something you’d want to come out instead.”

“And you know the rules; I gave you a bombshell of information, now you have to share something.” She poked him. “Start talking.”

“Fine, I think Seto Kaiba has a fine ass…happy?”

“You said that about Katsuya last week, try again.”

“Don’t you have a date to get ready for?” Jasper played with her pigtails. “That’s another thing, where is Ryou even taking you?”

Lorelei smiled and told him about the plans for tonight; somehow, Ryou scored them a full day at Tokyo Disney and after they were just going to walk around the park and just talk – nothing too fancy, after all tonight and for a while was just to see where things were and then they would make the final call if they were official or not. Jasper gave her a hug and wished a goodnight, he was actually going to be out tonight too with Katsuya, they were going to be at the hospital to discuss the eye surgery for Shizuka and what treatment options they had available as well as visit Sugoroku, he was in for another night just to make sure everything was okay – doctor’s orders, can’t really argue with them. With everything said and done, the two parted ways and wished Yugi a goodnight and that they would see him when they return – he assured them that the spirits would be on their best behavior, they were just going to spend the night having a Sonic marathon and getting to each other a little bit better. Everything would be okay! That was enough assurance, they got rid of the main threat that was the Millennium Eye so there was no need to have the puzzle on for the night – no threats, no chaos, everything was right in the world. And everything tonight was getting to the bus station on time and have the night of their lives.

Arriving at the park went as well as a bus ride would entail. Ryou took the liberty of getting them a map to navigate around the park and was already planning out on where they would go for dinner; Lorelei was the kind that lived in the moment, so she just walked with him and drifting over to whatever caught her attention on Main Street. After looking over the map, the two made their way to Adventureland to check out the Enchanted Tiki Room – featuring Stitch, they just loved the cute little blue alien and couldn’t help but laugh at his antics and even jamming with the birds. After the show they immediately went onto Pirates of the Caribbean – best part about this version; they kept the scarlet wench for a bride and the auction was still the bride auction. Ryou made the joke that he would pay everything for both Suzie and Lorelei if he were a pirate – it was later noted that Puppet Master had smuggled himself into the date. 

“I mean, I’m flattered.” She looked herself over in the hat at the giftshop. “I’d probably pay a case of rum for you as well.”

Ryou huffed and bought a ‘cursed medallion’. “Please, do not encourage him.”

“Aside from his unwanted comment, I am having fun.” She stopped herself from kissing his cheek. “Right, uh, what do you want to do next? I’ve always wanted to ride Pinocchio’s Daring Adventure back in the states but never got the chance to.”

“Only if we can meet some of the characters for pictures.” Ryou smiled and kissed her hand. “Shall we then, Captain Lorelei.” He offered his arm to her.

That was how they got their picture taken with Stitch dressed up from the world of “The Arabian Nights” as well as how they got to enjoy more of the classic rides. They caught the second showing of Dreaming Up! Before they went off for dinner that day; Sweetheart Café where Lorelei went with the Special set (tuna and potato salad sandwich, grape jelly, and a sprite) and Ryou went with a meat pie as well as an orange Danish. They decided to walk around Cinderella’s castle and talk about whatever came to mind; from what they were interested in to even just their favorite Disney movies.

“Okay, I think we have time for one more ride before the fireworks.” Lorelei looked at her watch. “Unless you want to call it a night?” 

Ryou looked over at her, breaking his gaze from the scenery; the Venetian Gondolas were their choices of the time being. The gentle boat ride and their singing skipper was an added bonus of the night. He played with her hair and smiled.

“I say we do one final ride and then call it a night after the fireworks. I think Yugi might be missing you.” He teased. “And I think Jasper enacted a little curfew time for you.” 

“I say, screw the curfew.” She smirked. “Rules were made to be broken.”

“Dear lord, Puppet Master seems to be rubbing off on you.” He laughed. “Alright, let’s hit up the Honey hunt and then we’ll call it a night.” He kissed her cheek. 

One trackless ride, and one firework show later was all it took. They both got some ice cream to share as they made their way back to the game shop, they decided to end it with just a silent conversation and enjoying each other’s company. Once back home, they stood outside by the door for a few minutes and looked each other in the eye – it took a few minutes before Ryou made the first move and kissed her on the lips before wishing her a good night. She gave a silent squeal of delight before heading inside and kicking her shoes off as she jumped onto the couch beside Yugi and sighed happily.

“I take it tonight went well?” Yugi asked her. “So, give us the details; we want to know what happened?”

Lorelei laughed. “Well, we did the rides…saw a parade, and we went to the Sweetheart café~” she sat up and crossed her legs. 

“The Sweetheart café? Oh, you have to talk to us about it in school, did he kiss you?”

“On the hand, once.” She nodded. “And twice on the cheek!” she covered her mouth. “My god, Suzie is going to flip when she hears about this.” She recovered and cleared her throat. “Anyway, tell me about your time with Mira and Yami, how was your Sonic marathon?”

“It went well, the two kept trying to beat the other’s score and I wholeheartedly agree with the Spirit of the Ring, these two are definitely related.” Yugi nodded. “Then I had dinner, just a pasta dish…Shadi showed up, but I chased him out with a broom so everything’s fine.”

“Alright, I doubt things went that well when Shadi’s involved.” She stretched. “But right now, I want to enjoy the moment of happiness before school comes.”

“Sounds good.” Yugi agreed. “We were going to start up Sonic Adventure 2 if you want in?”

The was the rest of the night before they had to turn in for bed. When school started up the next day, Lorelei shared the news with everyone else. Everyone except Ryou – he was running a little late, but Suzie was there and she was just grinning throughout the entire story, even promising to take over on covering the cost of the next date (to which Lorelei kept insisting that it was fine, there was really no need to do such, they could just have a night in and just watch movies and chill). The first half of the class went without a hitch, but lunch time was another story together; Ryou came in – no, it was the Puppet Master, and he looked annoyed as he approached the group with a bag, he stormed up and shoved it into Lorelei’s arms.

“What the- Puppet Master, what is this?” Katsuya asked.

“Call me that again and I will kick your ass.” He hissed. “And that, is what Ryou bought for Lorelei after their date but forgot to give it to her before they parted for the night! He spent all morning fretting about how he was going to bring this to you without turning into a blushing mess, but sucks to suck he was unable to, so here I am.” 

Lorelei smiled and took the stuffed animal out of the bag, “Aww, he got me Winnie!” she hugged the bear and smiled. “Bring Ryou out here and let me thank him!”

The Spirit was happy to oblige to such a request, he returned to the ring and left a blushing and stuttering Ryou in place. Lorelei didn’t hesitate for a second in pulling him close and kissing him on the lips in front of everyone – that made Ryou blush even harder, Suzie was to the side giving the thumbs up; Lorelei was definitely something in her opinion and she could only wait and see how the rest of the week went for the two, hopefully it became official.

*****

“You’re killing me, Spirit.” Ryou groaned.

The spirit was next to him, grinning. “Last night was a success, wasn’t it?” He challenged, he watched as Ryou nodded. “And she kissed you today, so that raises the success meter some. Now, all you need to do to seal the deal on your second date is to walk her back to the Game Shop.”

“She walks home with Jasper though.” He reminded. “And I don’t even live near the game shop.”

“Alright, then a new plan.” He narrowed his eyes at him. “I take over and walk her home and ask her for a date tomorrow and you can just sit pretty in your soul room. Happy?”

Ryou sighed, this spirit was going to be the death of him somehow. Reluctantly, he agreed to asking Lorelei if he could walk her home for the day, it went well – despite the grin that Suzie had (“I’ll come pick you up, Ryou, you two have fun”). The two spent the way to the game shop talking about a future campaign Ryou was cooking up for another Monster World session, even promising that the Spirit would sit this one out and that the group could play without any Shadow Magic interfering. It was a solid promise and she was eager to give some ideas to make the story exciting and challenging for others – special puzzles, riddles, everything one could find in a Professor Layton game. Ryou couldn’t help but to laugh at that, if they went down the route of Professor Layton, someone would be flipping the table out of rage.

Lorelei was also telling him about a new game she had downloaded; Twisted Wonderland, she didn’t know much about it since it only came out recently but she was excited. You wake up in a world called Twisted Wonderland and after a creature named Grim is freed from a coffin you find yourself to be enrolled in a prestigious magic training school…with Villains. What sold her despite the fact it was a Disney Dating Sim game was that it was also a rhythm game. She loved those games and one of her favorite titles was The Rhythm Thief. 

“I’m starting to think that our next date should be at a music hall.” Ryou teased. “Or maybe a dance studio, karaoke bar? I can get us in despite our ages, you’d be surprised with the connections I have.”

“Oh really?” Lorelei raised an eyebrow. “You know, you picked the last date site and I feel like it’s only fair if I took you out.” She leaned a little closer to him. “I was thinking we could stay in, play a round of Monster World between you and I, and maybe binge on the horror tag in Netflix?”

“In a pillow fort as we share a pizza and drinks?” Ryou grinned. “Homemade pizza of course, I don’t entirely like doing take outs.”

“Only if I can help make the food.” 

“Then it’s a deal…tomorrow night at my place?”

“I’ll wear my best pajamas.”


	19. Ghost Tour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this where I apologize for Horror references? Yes? Well, I'm not going to.

The Spirit couldn’t really help himself in watching his host get ready for another date night, things were actually going smoothly and adding in Suzie’s approval they might actually become official. Still, out of all the ideas for a date night; karaoke date, visiting a roller-skating arena, hell even just going to another showing of The Turning was a better date night idea than what Ryou had planned out. Ever since he found out about the latest visual novel that Lorelei was playing – Death Mark, he found out that most of those places were here in Domino and…decided to take Lorelei on a Ghost Tour to those places. The Spirit had so many questions and not enough answers; well, at least he was staying home for the night and not have to worry about their shenanigans.

“Hey, Spirit?” Ryou looked to where he was lounging. “Do you mind if I ask you some things about your past?”

“Why Ryou, if I knew you were that interested in me, I would have had a candlelight dinner set up for us.” He smirked. “Ask away, host.”

Ryou rolled his eyes, the spirit was always so arrogant. “Two things; one, do you know what your name is and two, why did you go through the same shadow game twice? The one with Lori and the one with Yugi?”

“Hmm…” The spirit leaned back and thought for a bit. “This is either due to influence from being around you and sometimes being called this, but…I’m fairly certain my name was Bakura in my time alive.” He replied softly. “I’m certain people called me that.” He shook his head. “Anyway! As for your second question; at the time, I was unaware that the spirits inside the puzzle were most likely the royal twins…Heck, I didn’t know there were spirits inside the Puzzle to begin with. Well, the only thing I knew about the puzzles when I had gained more of a conscious in this time was that I had to find them, take them, and keep them safe for when the time was right…seeing your girlfriend with the Puzzle first I felt a bit…territorial.”

“So basically, what you’re saying is…You thought Lorelei was the modern equivalent of a tomb robber.” Ryou asked flatly.

“That’s one way of putting it, yes.” Bakura shrugged. “Same thing with Yugi, but then after they told me what’s been going on and after some time of being out and being able to collect my thoughts; I’m now an ally, isn’t that what you want from me?”

“It is.” Ryou nodded and zipped up his bag. “I’m still mad at you for the soul stealing back at my old school!”

“Oh, it was the one time and they’re fine now!” He huffed. “Let it go, and go pick up your girlfriend from volleyball practice and do your weird ghost tour or whatever it is you have planned for her.”

“Practice is long over, Bakura.” Ryou reminded. “She’s probably getting ready at the Mutou Residence.”

Over at the game shop was slightly similar; Lorelei was getting dressed up in her white and blue blouse with a flowing, transparent material – it had a bit of a cloud pattern on the transparent part, dark blue culotte shorts, her stockings, and the star sandals. Her hair was done up in high-bun and curly pigtails again, and it was the same attire she wore on her date to Tokyo Disney. Both Mira and Yami looked at each other before shaking their heads; it was a new date, which usually meant wearing something new to show that she cared? Heck, Yami overheard what Ryou was whispering to Yugi and Katsuya and learned this was a ghost tour, so shouldn’t Lorelei be dressed in something more…active or sporty? Wouldn’t her volleyball uniform be appropriate for this kind of date?

“Didn’t you wear that on your first date?” Yami called out.

“Yep, and the first date was successful because of that.” Lorelei nodded in approval at the mirror. “Lucky outfit, never change the lucky outfit.”

“With that logic that means your Jack Skellington onesie is lucky too.” Mira smirked.

“You’re damn right it is, I’d wear it for test days if the school would let me.”

That got a collective facepalm from the two spirits before her, and she just smirked at their reaction before going out to the living room where Yugi and Jasper were playing a round of Battle Ships for the night. They looked up at her and had the same confused look on their faces – the only difference was that Jasper’s confusion turned into a look of defeat, she had done something similar for the test days in school a few times (heck, she came in her witch costume for a spelling test back in first grade for a month before the harsh winter weather started to creep in and she had to change outfits, then it was that candy cane shirt that she wore to her tests.) Yugi on the other hand, had the same thought as the spirits when it came to outfits to wear on the next date, however, something in his heart told him that Lorelei had that conversation earlier so there was no need to continue it. The two wished her a good night and went back to their game as Ryou came up the way and picked her up that night.

The car that Ryou had ‘rented’ out was one of Suzie’s drivers, Lorelei said nothing much about it as she had assumed that Suzie came from a family of money – why else would she have only joined Duelist Kingdom if not for the prize money like everyone and their cousin (save for Yugi and Lori who were dueling for Sugoroku.). The two were relaxing in the backseat as Ryou gave the first address of the many destinations they were going to visit, this date was making her excited but nervous as well; she was fine with spirits – she lived with them, but at the same time she and Jasper didn’t dare tempt fate with hostile ones and if she learned anything when it came to the spirits in Japanese Mythology, a good majority of those were hostile and deadly. Ryou had noticed and squeezed her hand in a silent assurance that everything would be alright, she looked up and smiled up at him before relaxing against him.

Soon, they came to a stop by an elementary school. Ryou had taken the bolt cutters out from the trunk and cut the chains that were locking the gate, he held the way open for her and followed her into the school. There was something eerie about walking around an empty school that just made the heart start racing; this was the exact place where one would encounter Hanahiko or Miss Zoo and if memory served her correctly; one killed with thorns and roses and the other…she didn’t want to think of it. As before, Ryou brought her close and gave a gentle squeeze to let her know that everything would be okay. He wasn’t going to let anything hurt her and he was armed to the teeth to make sure he would keep his word on the subject. Once she was settled, he led the way to where the mirror was located; the first of the ghosts – Hanahiko would be here if they were playing the game itself.

“Why was this school abandoned again?” she choked out.

Ryou looked at her. “Hurricane related; it left irreparable damages and the school closed down and had the students relocate.” He shrugged. “Of course, weather isn’t always a reason for a school to close but, I can assure you that the cause of this school closing was indeed weather related.”

“So, there’s no…you know…”

“About the case with the principal and Hanahiko?” He finished for her. “I’m certain there was a case about it, but I don’t think it has anything to do with this school. I’m certain the building was chosen because of how dark and eerie it is which is perfect for any horror game, case in point Silent Hill.” His eyes lit up. “That reminds me…Your school back in the states is named after the elementary school in the first game isn’t it?”

She held her hand up. “Would you believe me if I told you that the town next door to mine _is_ indeed named Silent Hill? It’s a fifteen-minute drive from where I live and…I swear I am not making this up, but my hometown is actually called Raccoon City.” 

Ryou couldn’t help but burst out into laughter, he held his side and used a nearby wall for support. He was laughing so hard tears were streaming down his face, “Oh my god! You’re….” he laughed harder. “You went to the same school in Silent Hill and you’re from a city that had zombies like Resident Evil!” his voice cracked a little. “You’re living in your own horror survival game!”

“Yes, yes, laugh it up.” Lorelei shook her head and smiled. “I hear every joke and snide remark about my town, but…it’s actually a nice little town; small town of only two thousand people.” She shrugged. “We have a beautiful bike trail and I think the whole us being close to nature makes up for the fact we’re a walking talking horror game.”

“You have me curious, why is your town called Raccoon City?”

“Apparently our town was and still is a raccoon breeding ground.” She answered flatly. “Jasper’s dad found a raccoon and three little babies hanging out in their attic one summer.”

Ryou took a few breaths and recovered before standing straight up. “Well, that wasn’t an exciting story as I had hoped.” He rubbed his eyes dried. “But it was pretty funny with the way things lined up, almost like a Twilight Zone episode.”

“Again, heard it all before.” She nudged him. “Come on, let’s go find your cursed mirror and the cursed floor where the Chimera teacher lurks.”

*****

“Well, that was a waste of time.” Ryou huffed as he walked out of the phone booth. “Thirty minutes and no ghostly calls.”

It was half past midnight when their tour had ended at the haunted phonebooth. The plan was to try and meet or talk to Hanayomi but to no avail, the deadly bride never called and the deadly bride never showed up. To Lorelei, she found it to be a blessing as they returned to the car and started the way home – now that she thought about it, the only ghost that did show up was Shimi-O and that was a hair-raising event, they were laughing as they drove away from the park. But now, things were quiet again and it was time for them to call it a night. It was actually a fun date, sure they only met one ghost out of how many, but the journey was the fun part of everything – she got to see a different side of Domino and she got to hear the actual stories about some of the places that the game tended to distort (but it was a game, they weren’t aiming for accuracy.).

“Well, at least you got to see a ghost in the park.” She reminded. “And we got to run like headless chickens from a drill.”

Ryou smiled and held her close. “That is true…Lori, did you have fun tonight?”

“It’s hard to tell if the racing heartrate is because of the excitement or the fact that we just narrowly escaped death.”

“I’ll take that as both.” He closed his eyes. “I don’t think we’re going to be getting any sleep tonight.”

“I don’t think so either.” She smiled and rested her head on him. “Do you want to stay the night?”

Ryou just nodded and dozed off, the two stayed like this for the rest of the ride home. The only sound was the radio that was playing from the front seat on some traditional station, it was fine for them, they’ve had an exciting day and they just wanted some peace after the whole ordeal so hearing some gentle strings was just perfect for them. When the care came to a stop, the two woke up and carried themselves to the top floor of the shop and settled on the couch with the rest of the group; Yugi, Jasper, Katsuya, and Sugoroku were watching a movie – Knives Out (If Lori had to make a guess, Jasper was the one who suggested the title). They had only came in at the end of the film and it wasn’t until the credits rolled that the others had noticed the two tired lovebirds beside them, it took a little bit of persuasion from Jasper to convince her to get up and change out of her ‘date attire’ and into something more comfortable to sleep in – and back into the Jack Skellington onesie. When she returned to the living room, the Mutous had got the pullout bed ready for both Ryou and Katsuya for the night, she smiled as Ryou immediately passed out the moment he hit the bed. Due to her still being awake, she had some of the leftovers from dinner and told the remaining group about how the date went – leaving out the fact that they had to run for their lives – the ghost tour was a success and even though the ghosts were a bust (save for Shimi-O), they had fun driving around the town. 

“At least you had fun.” Sugoroku smiled. “Do you have any idea what your next date would be?”

“I was thinking of taking Ryou to the gym just for a workout date, nothing exciting.” She yawned. “Maybe hit up a juice bar.”

Jasper ruffled her hair. “I might take the ghost tour idea from your book, by the way, how close to the actual haunting sites were you?”

“We took a selfie in front of the cursed mirror where Hanahiko was supposedly in.” she started.

“And that’s enough for me to know, we’ll keep a nice distance from the site itself.”

“Wimp.” She teased.

“A wimp I may be, but at least I’ll still be alive.” Jasper stuck his tongue out. “Anyway, I can tell you’re tired…finish up eating and then head to bed.”


	20. Meeting the Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, we meet Suzie's family and we learn more about the crazy family that is Royal and Rowe.
> 
> Also babe, Idk how you feel about the movie I mentioned so...yeah

The week of dates was finally up, and in that week the two actually became close through a lot of different means – from spending a night in and playing Monster World or video games, to going on ghost tours, to even just joining each other on their current extracurricular activities (Ryou was definitely not cut out for volleyball and Lorelei was definitely not one for poetry club. Still they had fun watching the other attempt the skill set – from getting beaned with a ball to not getting the rhythm of poetry.) They decided to break the news to Suzie at school the next day, her reaction was to be expected and that would be her jumping with joy and congratulating them; what she said next surprised Lorelei and caused Ryou to have his heart sink with dread. “Since you two are now official, you get the honor of meeting my uncles.” 

After grilling Ryou for information, it turned out that her uncles could be quite protective of Suzie. It was actually understandable, most family members were protective of their own (Most, not all, there were some family members out there that were total jackasses.) Still, even after learning that Suzie’s uncles were on the protective side, that didn’t really explain Ryou’s reaction earlier when Suzie announced the meeting; he was wincing and had a look of dread in his eyes, were that strict? She tried to get more information out of him, but he couldn’t tell her – it wasn’t like he didn’t want to tell her, but there was no way he could describe them to her. So, that just made things a little hard for her. Regardless, she was going to head in with her head held high and still show the family the respect they deserve. But first thing’s first, she had to get something for the meeting – it was rude to show up to a new family and not bring something (be it a welcome gift, a greeting gift, whatever the case may be.) A gift basket was a good start in these situations. 

That’s how Jasper found himself tagging along with Lorelei and Ryou. He was actually better when it came to arranging a gift basket than she was so he was here, Ryou knew what the uncles were like and gave inputs on what to add and what to keep out. By the end of the day they had a wine bottle (full body), a hunting knife, and everything else was a typical hot chocolate gift basket. The basket itself was sitting on the table back at the game shop for a few days before Suzie could collect Lorelei to meet her family, that would have to wait until the weekend and on a day when Lorelei wasn’t heading out to volleyball practice. Fortunately, the upcoming Saturday was a free day and that meant staying home and play videogames – or in Lori’s case, it meant she was going to be spending the first half of the day with Suzie and the family. She left the puzzle with Yugi and the others for the first half of the day and made her way to the meeting spot – the local park, holding the basket close to her as she made her way out the game shop. The wait wasn’t too long as pulling up the way was a familiar limo, she smiled and walked over to it, ready to greet Suzie and to meet the family.

“Good Morning, Lorelei!” Suzie greeted.

“Good Morning, Suzie.” 

She was able to take in her friend’s new appearance; a yellow plaid crop top that was tied in the front with a black long sleeve half sweater over it, a Hufflepuff themed clasp purse rested across her chest, she also wore a matching yellow plaid skirt that stopped above her knees and black boots that stopped under her knees. It was so different than what she wore from Duelist Kingdom – the light purple t-shirt, jean overalls, yellow sandals, and star shaped shades – it felt like she was looking at a different person! Still, she didn’t really have room to talk; she herself was wearing a black t-shirt with a bedazzled lion that she got when she saw Lion King with Jasper before they left the states, she also wore jeans and tennis shoes. Normally, she would have dressed a little nicer, but she figured if she was meeting a friend’s family she should aim for casual. 

“Ready to head out?” she paused when she saw the basket. “Lori, did you just buy a gift basket?”

“I’ve had this prepared ahead of time, yes.” She confirmed. “My upbringing was to give the host a gift when you meet them, Ryou helped with picking what should go in.” 

Suzie just nodded and got in the car with her friend. The two spent the time talking and getting to know each other better; it ranged from interests, to hobbies, and sometimes they would stray to what their dates with Ryou was like – and Suzie had to admit, the ghost tour with Ryou was the funniest story she had heard so far. She had just imagined Ryou’s reaction when a ghost with a giant drill was coming after him and that just made her laugh harder. Of course, Lorelei had to laugh and cry out in disbelief when she heard one of their dates included breaking into a church and stealing Holy Water. She couldn’t believe that either of the two would go that far into things, but they did. And she was losing it when she imagined Ryou picking the lock (howling when Suzie confirmed it was Ryou who did pick the lock). 

In the midst of their laughter, Suzie paused and immediately took her wallet out of her purse, it took a while before she pulled out a picture of her parents and handing it to Lorelei. She gently accepted the picture and looked it over; in the picture was a man with long black hair in a low ponytail, bronze yellow eyes behind a pair of glasses, and pallor-Asian skin, wearing a lab coat, a pair of black pants, and brown shoes. Beside him was a woman with chocolate brown hair that went to the mid of her back, blue eyes, and pallor-Asian skin, wearing a royal blue short-sleeve blouse, black pencil skirt, and a pair of red flats. The picture told Lorelei that Suzie favored her mother despite having her father’s eye color

“My dad and my uncle are twins.” Suzie explained. “Well, with the exception of hair color. Anyway, because they’re twins there’s been so many cases where people have mistaken my uncle to be my dad.”

“The eternal curse of being identical twins.” Lorelei nodded. “Your family looks nice.” She returned the picture.

“They are.” She smiled. “My mom has made grown men cry like babies, she’s a lawyer.”

“Kind of like my aunt, Eloise?” she smiled. “She once destroyed a doctor’s career so bad he had to leave the states!”

“You mean Kekeru Goyu?!” Suzie asked. “Eloise Royal-Arbatov is your aunt!? Wait…no it makes sense, your last name is Royal and so is hers. I thought your family had connections to the Russian Mafia because of who she married.”

“Oh no, we do have connections; her husband, my uncle, is the leader of the group.” Lorelei explained with a shrug. “They never get the rest of us involved, and we only see him for the holidays…didn’t really see a need to mention that.” She looked back at Suzie. “What kind of lawyer is your mom?”

“She handles kid cases and will sometimes be the lawyer for the kid. She will call her opponent or the judge out on their bs so we’re accustomed to the phone calls.” Suzie answered. “When she isn’t in contempt of court, that is. So, I take it that Eloise is part of R&R? Royal and Rowe? Mom mentioned R&R a few times, one of her coworkers had to partner with them on a few cases.”

“Yep, Jasper Rowe and I have been friends since we were still in diapers.” She confirmed. “Our families were close and they just blended in somewhere along the way; so, his family is considered part of mine and vice versa.”

The two continued their talk about families up until they got to their destination. The Nakazawa Enterprise. Lorelei raised an eyebrow at the building and sign, Nakazawa Enterprise was the most well-known company that advanced the medical field with pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, research, and a bit of everything else. But, in the end, whenever someone says Nakazawa, they’re immediately talking about medicine. So, this is how Suzie is well-off, somehow that wasn’t really much of a surprise because of the fact that doctors all over make pretty good money. Then again, so do lawyers, mafia bosses, and the like. Lorelei just shrugged at that and followed Suzie inside the building after they had parked. 

The lobby had potted palms and steel pillars, the white tiled floors created a clean, modern lines while wood accents lent warmth to the room. On the wall, she noticed a series of poster sized pictures on the wall, stopping when one of a familiar man with light colored hair and dark colored eyes caught her attention. Her eyes lit up at the sight of that, it was Doctor Morgan Rowe – Jasper’s uncle. Of course, his portrait would be here, he was working as a hematologist after all and he was well-known throughout the world. He actually looked good in this, he almost looked like a poster child for a Dexter Reboot that she couldn’t help but to laugh at the thought – his name was Morgan! Like Dexter Morgan! Her laughter got the attention of Suzie who came over to investigate what was so funny that she was laughing in the middle of the lobby. 

“What has the Rose Queen in laughter today?” She looked at the poster. “Something about Doctor Rowe?”

“I was just imagining him as the lead roll of ShowTime’s Dexter, and I was laughing about how his first name is the last name of the main character.” Lorelei explained. “And I couldn’t help but to laugh at the image.” 

“Doctor Rowe is an interesting character to say the least.” Suzie smiled. “Come on, we have an elevator to catch.”

Lorelei smiled and followed her to the elevator, she leaned on her heel as Suzie hit the button for up, soon after the elevator arrived with a ding and the two entered it after the doors opened. Once inside the button for one of the high up floors was pressed, the doors closed, and they glided up with smooth jazz music playing. The two of them exited the elevator and made their way down the hallway, entering what appeared to be a smaller lobby like area after a few minutes (Same as the bottom, minus the steel poles). Lorelei spotted what appeared to be a receptionist’s desk with a woman in her early 20s sitting behind it with short zinnwaldite brown hair, dark slate blue eyes behind rectangular framed glasses, and pallor-Asian skin with a stoic expression on her face, wearing a French sky-blue jacket over a ruffle black shirt. Suzie saw her too for she immediately bounced over to her with a smile on her face.

“Good morning Kiyomi nee-chan!” She greeted cheerily as she got to the desk.

Kiyomi looked up, a small smile replacing her previous expression as she saw Suzie, “Good morning Suzie.” She greeted in return, raising a slight eyebrow as she saw Lorelei come up behind Suzie, “Who’s this?”

“This is Lorelei, she’s my-” Suzie started then stopped before looking at Lorelei, “Do I still call you my friend or do I call you my possible girlfriend now?”

“Possible girlfriend?” Lorelei repeated. “Well…I suppose that would be correct, since I am dating Ryou.” She shrugged. “Yeah, Possible girlfriend is about right.”

Suzie nodded and turned back to Kiyomi, “As I was saying, this is Lorelei, my possible girlfriend. Lorelei this is Kiyomi, my uncle’s assistant.”

“Kiyomi Hirai. It’s nice to meet you.” Kiyomi said, holding her hand out for a handshake.

“Lorelei Royal. It’s nice to meet you too Kiyomi-san.” Lorelei said, shaking Kiyomi’s hand.

“The pleasure’s mine, so…what’s this about you dating Ryou? Last I checked he was dating Suzie?”

“He is.” Suzie cleared up. “I thought we’ve had this conversation, Ryou is Poly?”

“Right.” She nodded. “So, he finally found another piece to his heart after all these years?”

“More or less, turns out Lori here has a thing for occult lovers.” She winked to the blushing Lorelei. “She also likes bad boys on motorcycles.”

“Suzie, please shut up.” Lorelei begged.

Kiyomi had an amused smile on her face. “I see. I’m guessing you’re here for your uncle then?” She asked.

Suzie nodded, “Yep!”

“Give me a moment then.” Kiyomi said before turning to a small intercom system on her desk and pressing a button on it, “Sir, Suzie is here and she brought someone along with her.”

 _“Send them in.”_ A male voice came from the speaker.

“Alright you’re all set, go on in.” Kiyomi told Suzie then turned to Lorelei, “Good luck. You’re going to need it.”

“Thank you, Kiyomi Nee-chan.” Suzie replied.

As they made their way into the office, Kiyomi looked over at Lorelei and wished her luck. That caused her to blink in surprised as that was the second time someone had told her good luck when it to meeting Suzie’s uncle with the first one being Ryou. What kept causing this to happen? She didn’t have time to dwell on it as Suzie took her hand and led her over to a set of double doors. Opening one of the doors with her free hand, she brought her into a spacious office. The office had a series of bookshelves on one side of it, a few pictures on the other side, and a couple of couches and chairs around in the middle area with a few tables. On the other side of the office across from the doors they entered was a desk in front of the windows. As they moved further into the office, Lorelei could see two figures at the desk. The first figure was a male sitting behind the desk with long bistre brown hair with his bangs fading into licorice black, bronze yellow eyes behind glasses with a scar over his right eye, and pallor-Asian skin, wearing a maroon business suit; honestly if Suzie hadn’t shown that picture of her parents earlier, Lorelei probably would’ve mistaken the man before her to be Suzie’s dad. The second figure was also male and was standing next to the first one with short cherry red hair, golden honey eyes, and pale skin, wearing a grey turtleneck under a navy business suit. Once they were close enough, Suzie released Lorelei’s hand and skipped right over to the first male.

“Hi Uncle Katsuro!” She greeted, giving him a hug.

Katsuro chuckled softly, hugging her back, “Hello princess.”

Suzie smiled then hugged the other male, “Hi Uncle Sergei!”

“Hello little kub.” Sergei said, returning the hug then noticing Lorelei, “Who's your friend?”

“Uncle Katsuro, Uncle Sergei, this is Lorelei, my possible girlfriend. Lorelei, this my Uncle Katsuro and his bodyguard/boyfriend Sergei.” Suzie said.

"It's wonderful to meet you." Lorelei smiled and held up the basket. "Um...I hope this good, Ryou helped pick things out for it." her smile faltered a little out of shyness. "I paid a little extra for the full body stuff.” 

“Thank you for the gift basket.” Katsuro told her, accepting the basket from her. “You didn’t need to go the extra mile for this, Miss Lorelei.”

“I had to, it’s…part of the Royal family rules.” She said with a blush.

Sergei looked over at Suzie, “I'm glad zat you brought her to meet us but I zought you vere dating zee little cream puff?”

"If I may sir.” Lorelei straightened herself up. “Ryou and I are both Poly and Suzie gave us her blessing to try a trial week, the week went without a problem – okay, save for our ghost tour, that was a total flop we didn’t see any ghosts but we did have a fun walk in the park – and we agreed to be official and I suppose this makes Suzie and I official as well.” She felt her heart race a little at that.

“I see. Why don’t we move this conversation over to the couch?” Katsuro suggested, moving out from behind his desk, “I feel like if I stare at my computer screen anymore that it may end up going out the window.”

“Did Tenjou-san mess up another report again?” Suzie asked, leading Lorelei over to one of the nearby couches.

“Actually, it was Ikari-san this time.” Katsuro answered. 

Once the four of them were seated, Suzie and Lorelei on one couch and Katsuro and Sergei across from them, Katsuro turned his attention to Lorelei, 

“So, Lorelei, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself? It’s not every day that my darling niece brings someone by here.”

Lorelei straightened herself up and took a breath of air before replying. "Well, I grew up in the Royal family, my family and the Rowes had been friends for whoever knows how long and my friend Jasper Rowe is like my brother. My interests are writing - I aim to be an author, I like doing any form of physical exercise – I’ve joined my school’s volleyball team - and I usually drag Jasper to those Disney Races whenever I can. And my biggest love is video games, at least the ones with immersive storylines and puzzles. I used to be in choir and I am a B honor student."

"My, my, that's quite impressive. I'm guessing you've already seen the picture of Dr. Rowe in our main lobby then?" Katsuro asked, slightly leaning against Sergei to be a bit comfortable.

"Yeah, he's Jasper's uncle!" She smiled proudly. "He's a great guy and he showed us his lab one time, of course his superiors weren’t too thrilled having two four-year old children in a lab."

“That must have been some strings he’s pulled.” Katsuro said.

“How did you meet Suzie?” Sergei questioned, turning his attention from Katsuro to Lorelei.

“Officially, we met at the Rose Garden Tournament." She answered. “Unofficially, Ryou talked about her and showed pictures of her.”

“The Rose Garden, that was the duel leading up to Duelist Kingdom, right?” Sergei asked

“Correct, that and the Regionals; but we weren’t competing in that one, my friends Jasper and Katsuya competed and Katsuya ranked ninth while Jasper ranked fifth.” She smiled proudly.

“Duelist Kingdom was complete anarchy.” Suzie winced. “We have some clips of the duels taped too, courtesy of Jasper.”

Sergei nodded and asked for a copy of the tournament to which she was happy to inform that she would have copies made and sent to them. All was well so far in the meeting, Lorelei felt like since things were going so well that the good luck wishes faded from her memory, she didn’t know why she was given those to begin with, Sergei and Katsuro were amazing to be around and fun to talk with. It wasn’t until Suzie was asked to leave the room and to make sure that her cousin wasn’t going to repeat the ‘Screaming Gummy Bear’ incident again (Lorelei was almost too afraid to ask what that incident was, despite being morbidly curious). The moment Suzie had left, the cheerful and playful air turned serious, and almost in an instant she was sitting straight with her head held high and looking like a professional woman – despite her attire. 

She should have seen this coming; she’s seen her own uncle pull the same move on Jasper and her whenever they brought home some potential friends, the typical ‘So why do you want to be friends with my niece and nephew’ question. Naturally, only a handful of people – that is to say, only one person, managed to get by his interrogation and that was because they weren’t looking for friendship, they were just there to get a group homework assignment done. Still, she answered honestly about her and Suzie; Suzie was the matchmaker on the island and encouraged the two polys to go out for a week after the tournament, and that she truly believed she wouldn’t get far due to the numerous times Suzie had to assure her that she could kiss Ryou on the cheek goodnight – come to think of it, it was always Ryou who would kiss her first. 

Katsuro took off his glasses and pulled out a cloth to clean them. “Miss Lorelei, I can understand the confusion as to why I have to ask you these questions. As you know, a lot of people would trade their souls to be able to date the niece of the CEO of Nakazawa Enterprise. I adore her big heart, but I do fear that someone would try to take advantage of said heart.”

“Believe me, I know this all too well.” She sighed. “Back home in the states, it was near impossible to make friends in school because of who my family is; The Royal Family, and Jasper of the Rowe family. Two big influential names and two only heirs…people would sell their kidneys and a lung just to get close to us.” She shrugged. “My uncle Mikhail set up a system to have potential friends be on video call with him…it never ended well. Turned out the majority of ‘friends’ were the ones who’d sell their vital organs.”

“Is this the same Mikhail that leads the Russian Mafia?” Sergei asked.

Lorelei flinched and nodded. “Yes…that would be him…this doesn’t change anything does it?”

"Huh, I didn't know that Arbatov-san had a niece." Katsuro said, calm about the news. He took a quick glance at Sergei. 

"I didn't either and you know I didn't have any other ties before coming to work for you." Sergei stated. 

Katsuro nodded then looked back at Lorelei, "How is your uncle doing by the way?"

The last time she saw him was last year during Christmas time with the family. She smiled a little at the memory, it was over video call due to being here in Japan but he still managed to get the family tradition going – send Lorelei and Jasper Matryoshka dolls with a gift hidden inside them (no doubt, he got the information from their parents the moment they flew down. Best part, where he worked it was a boat ride away and he could drop by and surprise the two more!). This year’s present for her was a beautiful onyx ring that she wore, Jasper’s was a diamond wristwatch.

“He’s doing fine, he calls us more and he’s only a boat ride away from us.” She smiled bright. “Back in the states, we only see him during the holidays.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, who did he marry in your family?” Sergei asked.

“My aunt Eloise…the lawyer at R&R?”

“Ah yes, I’ve heard of her a few times. Though most of it was from my sister in law – Suzie’s mother.” Katsuro said.

“She would be the same Eloise that destroyed Kekeru Goyu back in the states.”

“I remember that, Leiko said it was all anyone at her work would talk about during that time frame.”

“No wonder, Mikhail married her.” Sergei chuckled. “She’s vicious as she is beautiful.”

“That she is.” Katsuro agreed. “Well, in any case, I suppose this concludes our meeting unless you have any more bombshell information, you’d like to share with us?” he watched as Lorelei shook her head no. “Then, all I ask is that you make sure Suzie doesn’t get hurt.”

“You have my word.” She promised.

*****

Returning home was actually quite the adventure. The moment she entered the building was when Seto was walking out, and upon asking her friends what was going on they confirmed that Seto was now an honorary member of the Millennium Gang. Apparently, ever since the incident with the Millennium eye, he tried his hardest to look for any and all information about the items and to no luck, so he decided to stop by here and ask the group. Of course, everyone was hesitant at first but when he started to own up for everything and even apologizing, they agreed to share whatever information they had with him. It got past the point of information sharing and just sitting down and enjoying some calming tea between them, Sugoroku even offered Seto to come over whenever he was feeling stressed or whenever he was feeling like the darkness in his heart was staring to come out and just sit and talk. All Seto said to that was ‘I’ll think about your offer’. 

“And when did all this started?” Lorelei asked.

“Well…sometime on your ghost tour, Seto came over.” Jasper confirmed. “We decided to wait until everything between you, Suzie, and Ryou were finalized before we told you what was happening.”

“I’m still having a hard time believing this.” She shook her head and kicked off her shoes. “But he’s at least making up for everything and that’s good right?”

Katsuya shrugged. “Yeah, I guess…he offered Jasper and I internship at his company. It pays too!”

“So that means, extra money for Katsuya to help with Shizuka.” Lorelei smiled. “That’s great! When do you guys start?”

“He said he’d call us after he tie up some loose ends at KC.” Jasper replied. “We don’t know what’s going on over there exactly but…you know what they say, a storm is coming.”

Anzu sighed. “Well, we’ll just have to prepare ourselves somehow.” She shuddered. “I just hope it doesn’t involve a Shadow Game.”

“I doubt it.” Yugi spoke up. “I don’t think the suits over there have the same ancient magic…but we should still make a game plan of some kind.”

“Agreed…after we relax some, I’m exhausted.” Lorelei sighed and flopped on the couch. “I vote we watch Gerard Butler tonight in Gods of Egypt!”

“Gods Lori, really!?” Jasper groaned. “That movie sucked; it butchered the mythology!”

“I will not have you diss that movie in front of me, Rowe! It was great and it had amazing effects!”

“You’re only saying that because you have a thing for Gerard Butler!”

“Hel-lo! Have you heard him in Phantom of the Opera! Listen to him sing Music of the Night!”

“That doesn’t cover Gods of Egypt, sister!”

**THWAK!**

The two rubbed their heads and looked up at a glaring Anzu, huffing she just moved them to separate ends of the couch and sat between them. Yugi just shook his head and made them a deal, they would watch Gods of Egypt for Lorelei, and then after they would watch Murder on the Orient Express for Jasper. It was a fair trade and the group got together and settled for the first movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reason for the Gods of Egypt argument; I've heard a lot of people saying they didn't like it, but you know what? I actually enjoyed it. Sure there were some things I would have changed, but I liked the movie.


	21. Legend of Zelda - I mean, Legendary Heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh...I decided to post this all into one chapter. I'm going to be juggling with the next arc anyway so...yeah. 
> 
> This Chapter Features: Movies. New friends. A mafia uncle. And a surprise guest star from Lorelei's Deck.

Another day has gone by with nothing exciting; well no, that was a lie, the last thing that has happened aside from meeting Suzie’s family was running into a girl named Rebecca. That sparked a duel that mimicked one that Sugoroku had with an old friend of his – Arthur Hawkins, it played out the exact same way and the reason was that Rebecca was under the assumption that Sugoroku stole Arthur’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon card. Fortunately, after that duel everything was cleared up; they explained the mess with Seto and of how he owned up to everything when the events of Duelist Kingdom ended, and like Seto they come to visit the game shop every now and then – sometimes when they visit, they actually met Seto and they were able to talk things out. Before the Hawkins family had to leave for the States, Yugi and Lorelei presented Rebecca with the Ties of Friendship card (that was given as a prize from DK), and Lorelei’s Gravekeeper’s Visionary. Of course, that meant she was going to have to redesign her deck now – it was no big deal, she was a crafty girl, she could figure something out. Aside from that, the only other excitement was when her uncle would sail over and visit her and Jasper.

Mikhail had met their friends and surprisingly, he actually liked them! He didn’t interrogate them or anything of the sort, well…other than destroying Katsuya in an arm-wrestling match, but that was because Katsuya challenged him first! Life in Domino was peaceful; there was no stress, no Shadow Games, the slow progress on their spirit friend’s memories was…going decent – out of everything the only thing they’ve discovered was that the Royal Twins were quite the gamers in their time alive – movie nights were frequent, and of course school clubs were going by swimmingly. Heck, they had their first (unofficial) game and Lori’s team had won (it was against the seniors to see if they were ready for the real games out there). As of tonight, the group was back in the game shop and enjoying another movie – Miho’s pick; Killer Klowns from Outer Space – in all honesty, the movie was…a thing. It was its own category of entertainment, and one look to Miho showed that she was starting to regret her choice. For Sugoroku, he was enjoying it and commenting on how the 80’s had a lot of unique movies – unique being translated into ‘Most of our movie makers were probably high on the weed when they came up with the plot’.

“I think we can all agree after that fairy floss of a movie, we need something to stimulate our brains more.” Ryou spoke. “Might I suggest we all watch The Craft?” 

“We are not watching The Craft.” Lorelei snapped. “I’d sooner reread Deathly Hollows than watch that.”

“First off Lori, The Craft is a cult classic.” Jasper pointed at her. “Second off, it has my vote so it’s two to one.”

“Jasper, Lori, you’re both very pretty.” Hiroto spoke up. “So, there’s no need to fight over a movie, of course…I wouldn’t mind if we watch something like say…The Mask of Zorro.”

“It has sword fighting in it.” Anzu noted. “And I always love a good sword fight.”

“And he’s a hero!” Hanasaki chimed in. “He’s like Batman with his own secret hideout!”

“A hero, a swordfighter, a regular Casanova, it has the ingredients of a good action film.” Sugoroku agreed. “And it starts with a revolution of sorts.”

“It’s agreed! Hit the play button right now Katsuya, we’re watching Zorro!” Lorelei cheered.

And that was how the night started; an oncoming thunderstorm that was spent huddled in PJ’s watching movie and enjoying tea and snacks; six minutes into the film and some were inching closer to the TV set. It was as Sugoroku said, this was already a making of a good action movie, Jasper decided to throw Lorelei under the bus by mentioning she took up fencing and was top of her class (like everything else due to their family, but they weren’t going to complain, it meant bragging rights), this led to a weird conversation about reenacting the movie during lunch at school – hey, that was the excuse they went with when she met Katsuya. They were just reenacting from the Batman comics, and Katsuya was playing the role of Red Hood. Since that excuse, the group made it their goal to reenact from the movies or anything. After tonight, the school was going to see some Zorro moments with them leading the way – and have the teachers nag on them for not joining Drama Club. 

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, so much so that they had failed to notice a figure in the living room with them. Some were cursing out the villain (hey, they were only now fifteen minutes in and already things were getting really tense), and others were shedding their own tears. It wasn’t until a familiar voice spoke up that broke everyone from the movie and turning their attention to the new addition to the group.

“Suzie, what are you doing here?” Lorelei asked.

“It’s nice to see you too babe.” She kissed her cheek. “But I was here looking for Seto, I know he lurks here time to time, but uh…I see he’s not here.”

“No, we invited him.” Hiroto informed. “Along with Kajiki and Mai, but the three were busy with something else, Seto said something about tying up loose ends over at Kaiba Corp and that he would be by later.”

“He said the same thing to me when I called him about our meeting.” Suzie shook her head. “You know the saying ‘A storm is coming’, I have a feeling one is about to hit hard, and I’m not talking about the thunderstorm coming our way.”

Lorelei nodded. “I say we shut up about it, because this is getting good and if I have to leave in the middle of a movie just because some jackoff decides to start something, I am going to polish off my old sabre and shank a bitch.”

“Okay, Kage…let Lorelei out now, I know that’s you talking.” Jasper rolled his eyes.

Kage huffed and pouted. “Thought we had you that time.” She smirked and let Lorelei take over.

Jasper shook his head; it was a game those two liked to play; they’d switch and wait to see if anyone was able to tell the difference. “She would have won if she hadn’t added those colorful words.”

“Well, at least join us for now.” Lorelei smiled and moved to the side. “We’ll confront Seto about his ‘business meeting’, sound good?”

She agreed and laid her head on her shoulder, as the group continued to watch their movie. They didn’t really get far except to meeting the apprentice of Zorro before the sound of frantic knocking on the door interrupted them, the group paused the movie again and went downstairs to where Mokuba was – standing outside and looking terrified, They hurried and let him in, closing the blinds and locking the doors; they knew the signs, this was serious and they had to have their muscles at the entrance while they figured out what was going on. Lorelei, Suzie, Katsuya, and Hiroto were downstairs and armed while the rest were upstairs and talking with Mokuba, from Lorelei’s position, she was able to hear some of what’s been going on. From the sounds of things, Seto had confronted the Big Five – the ones who worked for his stepfather and were ready to stab Seto in the back – and just as he was ready to give them the axe, they had tricked him into testing out a game he was working on, a virtual world! That was all neat, minus the fact that Seto was now trapped and they have to get him out.

It was a tough choice to make, but in the end the people who agreed to go with Mokuba into the world were Katsuya, Yugi, and Lorelei. Jasper agreed to go along with Suzie, Anzu, and Hiroto as guards and back-up muscles in case the suits tried to get in. Miho, Ryou, and Hanasaki agreed to keep watch of the shop with Sugoroku – and assuring them that they wouldn’t finish Zorro without them, even if the temptation was great. One limo ride to the other lab and the game was set.

*****

“I’m getting some serious Ocarina of Time vibes from this world.” Lorelei muttered as they walked through the desert village.

Fighting zombies, finding a fairy, and now entering a desert town where the only way to pass through the desert itself was to get a Niwatori card as that was the only creature that could traverse the harsh desert sands. And the only way to get that card was to win it in a Gladiator style duel, that’s how she ended up in the stands with Yugi and Mokuba watching Katsuya duel Madame Butterfly and judging by how the duel was going it was actually painful to watch and she had to hide her face in his her hands. Of course, she can’t really be sure, but Madame Butterfly’s dueling style seemed awfully familiar, and her voice was ringing familiar too…it dawned on her; the taunting tactics, the seductive look, and even the use of Harpy Lady! Mai Kujaku! So, this is where she was hiding out instead of taking up the offer of movie night with the others, oh…she was so going to pick on her after tonight.

After that little reunion, Mai had her Harpy snatch the prize and helped the group escaped. It turned out she was here because the Big Five hired her to beta test the game and offered a big payroll because of it. That was probably as good of a reason as anything, being able to test something at Kaiba Corp and get paid for it? Who wouldn’t take it up? The trip through the desert went as well as one would expect (Lorelei and Mai were ready to smack Katsuya for naming his bird ‘Drumsticks’) they came to the cave on the other side of the desert and entered through, it was a Labyrinth and they had to be guided out by the fairy (and get pass tanks using the Magical Hats trap card) where they would eventually meet a Princess…that looked very similar to Mokuba.

“Either this has the Big Five’s name written on it, or Seto is trying to say something.” Katsuya looked at Mokuba.

“Wouldn’t be surprising, they’ve already messed with the code of the game before.” Mokuba replied in an unamused tone.

The group followed the Princess – Adena out and returned back to the castle, they were greeted to a Hero’s Feast, well, who were they to turn down such an offer. After prodding for more information, it turns out that every year a town would offer up a human in hopes to revive the Mythic Dragon, it turned out the other had selected Seto as their tribute and Adena volunteered for her own kingdom. Of course, like every other game similar to this, there was a myth that Legendary Heroes would save the town and destroy the dragon, and the lucky heroes…were them. One change of wardrobe later and everyone was ready…as ready as anyone could be in attire like this. While the others had a traditional look with robes and armor (unless you’re Katsuya and you’re dressed as a caveman. Nice muscles.), Lorelei was in a red tattered dress with a silver armor on her upper torso - a puldron on her shoulder, and a silver neckpiece. She had silver armored boots, and a thin blade sword. (give her a mask and she could be the renaissance version of Zorro). 

“Hey Mai, can we trade?” She gave a small twirl. “This isn’t really my style.”

“How about…no.” Mai looked at her. “That’s definitely your style; you’re cute, you’re badass, and you look ready to shank someone with your blade.”

“Jasper told us she was top of her fencing class, so of course that’s her style.” Katsuya grinned and patted Lorelei’s shoulder. “Our little Red Hood is growing up, Mai.” He backed off when he saw the blade pointed at him. 

“Right, let’s take care of this dragon.” Lorelei muttered. “I hate every one of you.” 

That was easier said than done, and they really needed to talk to Mokuba about diving into things headfirst like switching places with the Princess just to get to his brother and save him. They had to tack on another reason to get to the Castle of Dark Illusions as quick as possible. So, with the help of the Time Wizard and using their own army of duel monsters to clear a path, they were able to get inside and be greeted by a wonderful surprise; Seto and Mokuba standing safe and sound – of course, one punch to Seto’s arm had to confirm that it was indeed the real Seto. Great, so the dragon couldn’t be revived and everything was right in the world, yes? Not entirely, the big five programmed the arena to a Dragon themed one and forced their hands into fighting the Five-Headed Dragon, only dragons were allowed to fight. 

This made the others worried, as far as anyone knew; Lorelei didn’t have dragons mixed in with her spellcasters. The plan was simple; keep Lorelei and Mokuba out of danger – another easier said than done with Mokuba shoving Seto out of the way and taking a hit and fading away, Mai was next, then Katsuya. All that were left was Lorelei, Yugi, and Seto – to their surprise, a new Dragon had entered the field, one they’ve never seen before.

“Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend take that fucker down!” 

The dragon roared and shot at the Five-Headed Dragon, taking out a head – for a dragon with 5000 attack points, each head was worth 1000, and Scarlight had a wonderful effect to take each head down (of course, it was just easier to take one at a time than all at once if one wanted to be technical about it).

“Lorelei…I’ve never seen that card in your arsenal before.” Seto mused. “I thought you were all spellcasters.”

“Well, I’ve won DK with Yugi and the world knows of my combos now, so I figured I’d spice things up.” She smirked. “I’ll continue to weaken him from behind you two take them down for good.”

And that’s what happened. One fusion between a knight and a Blue-Eyes and the dragon was defeated (sucks that the Five-Headed Dragon was weak to light monsters), the game was won; Adena brought back the fallen warriors and the group was able to return to the world of the living. And be greeted by the sight of unconscious suits laying in the door along with Suzie and Jasper holding metal bars in their hands. They didn’t need to put two and two together to figure out what happened, they just agreed to let the ‘cleanup crew’ handle the bodies while they returned to the game shop and finish up The Mask of Zorro – now with Mai, Seto, and Mokuba. Katsuya and Jasper were hyping up the movie to the trio, the only noticeable thing about Seto’s reaction to all of this was the gleam in his eyes when Katsuya mentioned sword fighting – this worried Lorelei a little, she knew that planning look anywhere…it was the same one she had whenever she and Kage would play their little game. 

*****

“Why didn’t anyone tell me that Seto was insane with a blade!?” Katsuya cried.

It was a horrible mistake introducing Seto to not only the black and white version of Zorro, but also to the Mask of Zorro. Due to his nature, he picked up the quiet conversation about wanting to learn the way of the blade and he offered his assistance in teaching everyone – even Lorelei offered to be an assistant. That was the first and second mistake; introduce Seto to Zorro and agreeing to let him teach, the third mistake was letting him near a sword. 

“Pick up your blade, Jonouchi.” Seto yelled.

Katsuya obliged and charged at Seto again. If there was ever another movie of Zorro that just happened to take place in Domino, Seto would be taking that role with stride with each graceful dodge and effortless blocks, even knocking the blade out of Katsuya’s hands without breaking a sweat. Lorelei was just as fierce if not just as deadly as Seto, and the girls were learning that just as hard – Miho ended up on her butt more times than she can count, Hanasaki was leaning against on the wall catching his breath, and Suzie was with Mokuba in the stands watching amused.

“You know Seto, you’re rough around the edges still.” Lorelei smirked at him. “But, you’re something else.”

“As are you, Royal.” He walked over. “I’ve always thought you and fencing weren’t compatible, you were only taking it because of your family.”

Lorelei grinned and pointed her blade under his chin. “There you go assuming again, I took it because of the Rowe family, yes.” She confirmed. “But I have my alternative motives.”

“You must be the famous Kage that Jasper never shuts up about.” He took advantage of her surprised look and took her sword. “He informed me of your little game, and uh side lesson.” He leaned close. “Never drop your guard.”

Kage huffed and swatted him gently. “Return my blade, I have a score to settle with a lavender-haired snitch.”

Katsuya held his blade up. “You have to get through me first, Princess.” 

“It’s a date then, Kit Kat.” She smirked and took her saber. “En Garde!” 

Blades were flying, dodges were happening – Katsuya was the first one out to no surprise so it was just Lorelei and Seto going head to head. Upon asking Jasper what the likelihood of this being a tie, he confirmed that while yes, Lorelei was the top of her class, her strategy was always built on her reading her opponents and striking at their blind spots or weak spots, whereas Seto will use what he knows about the opponent and use their own mind against them. Seto plays with the mind while Lorelei plays with the body. And as luck had it, Seto did show that skill in play his method? Seduce her. If his memory about what Jasper and the others had said about Lorelei were true, she always went with the smooth-talking bad boy…it was how she lost her saber to Seto and got a mocking sneer at her as he was now armed with two blades.

“You dropped your guard again.” He smirked.

“Fuck you and your mind games.” Lorelei pouted.

“Yes, Yes.” He handed her the saber. “Care to try again?”

“For you, anything.” She smirked. “I’m taking you down once and for all, Seto Kaiba.”

“We’ll see about that.” Seto got into position. “En Garde!”


	22. Falsebound Kingdom: Invitation to the Kingdom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! It's Falsebound Kingdom time! 
> 
> Please end my suffering ^_^

“I’m not even joking; I was this close to calling uncle Mikhail about going after the Big Five because of the whole turning Mokuba into a princess thing.” Jasper groaned. “And if that wasn’t enough, only two are suddenly in a braindead state so we have three of the bastards left and Seto is exhausting every bit of resource trying to find them.”

“And you’re worried about Seto.” Lorelei finished for him. She jumped down from the pole she was using for pullups and landed before him. “I’m worried about him too, mostly because I’m afraid he’s going to do something stupid again.”

It’s been a few weeks and the topic about what happened in the game Legendary Heroes were all anyone of the group were able to talk about, whether it’s updating the group that was left behind or just talking about the events that had happened in the game. If they weren’t talking about that, they were talking about fencing and sword fighting in general; Seto and Lorelei were the hot topic of the latter, they were rivals in the blade and the score was forever in Seto’s favor to her annoyance (Mira was just as annoyed and there were matches when it was her and Seto instead of Lorelei and him). It took a few more days before it was just Jasper and Lorelei talking about the game and about certain events they didn’t want to share with the group – topics such as talking about the theories as to why the Big Five made Princess Adena look like Mokuba, those were just kept between them; and with conversations like that, Lorelei wouldn’t put it past her best friend to get her uncle on the line…heck, she had called sometime after Seto informed them that the other three were still out and about, Mikhail had promised to have his men search for the remaining Big Five members and would call to report any changes, to everyone’s dismay…no news have been brought up. They were a tricky bunch indeed, and it was beginning to worry everyone.

The two left the gym and returned home to the game shop, they greeted Mr. Mutou and went upstairs so they could wash up and change. Jasper entered the bathroom first – his reasoning; “You take way too long in there, Lori.” She just huffed and went to their shared room before getting a change of clothes ahead of time so she didn’t have to walk out in a bathrobe. She grabbed a sleeveless blue dress with white shoulder straps, a frothy white neckline and a white bodice with three gold buttons held together at the front with a blue-ribbon bowtie. The skirt is loose and ends above the knee. Darker blue embroidery decorated the bottom hem and two dark-blue ribbons tied in bows decorate the right and left side of the bottom hem, she decided to forgo the rest – hosiery, waist accessory, and shoes – she wasn’t really going anywhere so there was no need to go all out on dressing up for the day. Feeling a cold chill by her side, she smiled over to where her friend was; Mira was looking at the dress with interest. 

Mira was another thing, throughout their time together they’ve learned little about her past but they’ve made up for it by introducing her to new things. If she can’t remember old memories, they would give her new ones! And they’ve learned quite a bit about Mira today; she loves fencing and physical activities, her attire choice was always on the elegant or mature side of thing – she even begged Lorelei for a dress similar to the one they wore in the game, she obliged and had it commissioned (minus the armor stuff) for Mira to wear whenever she wants to have a day to herself out on the town – she usually lurks by the park and just enjoys the day, even more so when it’s a sunny day and if it’s a rainy day she’s out splashing in puddles and laughing. Despite a princess in her past life, she definitely was fun to be around – prim and proper on the outside, playful and fun loving on the inside. Of course, this meant that Lorelei had to take a hot shower every time Mira came back home after playing in the rain. Aside from that, she’s always curious about her host’s wardrobe, she knew that Lorelei liked the pure, lively, and cute side of things and while she was chill with that, she did felt like she had to have an input on what she should buy and wear (shopping with Mira was a headache, but they always found a middle ground. The dress that Lorelei was holding for example was a sleeveless, she compromised with Mira, it fell under the pure category but it had some cool elements and it’s free feeling the way that Mira liked it.). There were more about Mira that they were learning, and the results were just as grand nonetheless.

“I still think you should go for bolder colors.” Mira commented as she watched Lori head to the bathroom as Jasper came out in towel and all.

“Oh, don’t worry.” Lorelei grinned. “I’m going to go bold soon, when that will be will be a surprise.” She stuck her tongue out.

“You’re a strange girl, I think the only other clothing I’ve seen with bold colors have been that cherry halter dress of yours.” She smirked. “And no, I’m not counting your casual wear…Ryou’s coming over, isn’t he?”

Lorelei shook her head and locked the door. “For once, no, he and Suzie are meeting with Seto.” She hung her dress up and started the water. “I just want to feel cute today, is that a crime?”

“You’re cute everyday who the hell are you trying to fool?” she smirked at her blush. “And yes, I can just say that; I’m sure Ryou and Suzie would agree with me, maybe Puppet Master, but he might say it in a crude way.”

“This conversation is over!” she threw the shower curtain closed and pouted when she heard Mira laugh. That was another thing about Mira; playful, prim and proper, and had quite a mouth on her – said mouth is how one could tell the difference between her and Mira, while there were times that Lorelei would swear, she only did it when she wasn’t in control of her emotions. Mira however, would swear constantly and if she wasn’t swearing, she had the same mannerisms as Puppet Master. It was moments like this that made Lorelei wonder if Mira and Puppet Master were an item in their past lives.

Dried and dressed, she decided to see what the boys were doing. She watched as they tended to their fencing equipment while listening to SPG, Jasper definitely got to Yugi and she was grinning – Brass Goggles were playing and Yugi was just jiving while sitting in place. Both didn’t notice her appearance until she started singing along and causing them to clonk their heads together in surprise – another reason why she was the ‘Robin’ of the group, stealthy and sneaks up on her foes…okay Red Hood was more brash than a typical Robin, but it was the same thing regardless.

“Payback for your comment earlier.” She smirked.

“Very cute, Lori.” Jasper rubbed his head. “Date night tonight?” he asked, nodding to her attire.

“Nope, just wanting to feel dressed up today.” She sat beside them. “So, what are we up to today?”

“Just polishing up the blades.” Yugi shrugged. “And talking about what we’re going to do for movie night; I was thinking we stay to one genre and see where that leads us, my vote was on comedy.”

“I can tell that’s going to lead us to other genres.” Jasper shook his head. “Little Evil is comedy but also horror, it makes fun of every horror movie trope out there.”

“Not that I don’t mind our movie nights, but I’m getting bored.” Lorelei groaned. “Lately everything is feeling like a dull cycle.”

“I’m not going to argue as you do have a point.” Yugi thought before his eyes shone with excitement. “I got it! Jasper, Lori, you’ve been in various clubs and everything right?” he watched them nod. “What if our meetups include say…you teaching how to garden? I mean, you got us into fencing?”

Jasper thought for a bit, “Just making sure I’m understanding correctly; before we start movie or game nights, we teach the group one thing from our old club days? Like, this weekend would be water color paints?”

“Yes!” Yugi nodded. “If you’re okay with it that is.”

They thought for a bit before nodding in agreement, “It would be great to start up some old hobbies again, we’ll get the supplies!”

That was the new normal now, and frankly, the group was perfectly fine with it. Movie nights started out by watching various artists and painting along with watercolors, if the internet was out due to a storm then it would be Jasper and Lorelei leading the party and in the end the hobby was taking the school by storm through watercolors to oil painting (this felt eerily similar to the Monster Fighter craze, but at least people weren’t getting mugged for art supplies). Jasper and Katsuya would often be seen together sketching from their choices of books and challenging the other to paint them without using a reference; it was a fun little challenge and the results were comical, Jasper once got the colors mixed up on a warrior type card and Katsuya was way off the mark when he was challenged to paint an SNK character. After the painting lessons came doll restoration and repaints – that didn’t stick with the school, which was fine, they just wanted something for their group to do. It did however, stick with the Kaiba brothers; Suzie had reported Seto sitting during a meeting and rethreading a doll’s hair, it was actually the least stressful of meetings. It was just hobbies and lessons after another. 

Their new normal was cut short in the game shop one day, it was Lorelei’s and Katsuya’s day to run the shop when she came into the building. A beautiful girl around their age with long light brown hair, light blue eyes and dressed pretty professionally with her black long-sleeve shirt and jeans, she was holding a desert themed bag and a phone in her other hand and around her neck was a golden cartouche. The girl’s eyes lit up when she saw both Lorelei and Katsuya and quickly rushed up to the counter, digging into her bag and taking out a set of envelopes.

“Oh, I am so glad you’re here! I was looking everywhere for you!” she exclaimed.

“Are these tournament invites?” Katsuya picked up the one with his name on it. “Cause if so, we’re definitely not prepared.”

She shook her head. “No, they’re actually invites from Seto.” She straightened herself up. “My name is Revanna, and I’m an intern at KC. I was told to deliver these invites to a select number of duelists to try out Seto’s new game; The Kingdom, it’s a step up from when he made Legendary Heroes.”

Lorelei looked over the envelope and raised an eyebrow; “He wants us to test the new game?” she watched Revanna nodded. “Well, I have no problem with it.”

“Wonderful!” she clapped her hands together. “The information is written down on your invites, we’ll see you then.”

The two waited for a while as Revenna bought a pack of cards and left the building before talking amongst themselves; Katsuya had been working for Seto for a few weeks now and not once had he seen Revanna in the halls, but that wasn’t enough for a red flag; she was probably in a different part of the building than where he was stationed – he was Seto’s secretary and got to hang on the top floor with him alongside with Jasper and they had their own kick ass office (It was big enough that they’ve managed to use the extra desks just laying around to set up a paddleball stage so they could play whenever it was a slow). What was a red flag however was when they’ve brought this up to Jasper, he assured them that this was the first time he’s heard of The Kingdom; he nor Katsuya had heard Seto talk about it – and Seto always told them everything, he trusted the duo more than he’d like to admit. 

Sharing this news with the group, everyone had the same thought; even if Seto was working on another game, he wouldn’t bring it up in fear that one was compromised by the same group, and this definitely had the Big Five’s name written all over it (well, the Big Three, now). There was a lot of debate going on between sides; some thought they should go to the site and try out the game – if Seto was trapped into that one again, chances are he was forced to. The Big Five weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, who’s to say that they wouldn’t kidnap him. Others just agreed to get Mikhail and Suzie involved as backup. Both had a good idea, but the problem with the second option; even if they did call Lorelei’s uncle for help, he was still in Macau and would take a while to sail over – chances are that by the time he got there it would be too late. Then there was the topic of Suzie; when they got Ryou in, he confirmed that the meeting never happened and that Suzie hadn’t answered his calls. They were forced to go through the first option; go into the game.

*****

“I’m so glad you’re here, welcome!” a cheerful man greeted. “My name is Scott Irvine, I’m one of the developers, Mr. Kaiba hired for this project.” He held his hand out. “It’s a great honor to have the champions of Duelist Kingdom, Regionals, and Rose Garden here!”

This was their life now; standing in a lobby with a strange man holding a clipboard, dressed up in a suit and the smile he had…well…no, everything about him was screaming “Penguin” to them (Ryou was still plotting against Lori for forcing the group to watch Gotham to the end). Even if Gotham hadn’t solidified their distrust on him, the affirmed mentioned of the missing Big Three was enough, they weren’t certain who was still loyal to Seto and who was ready to stab him in the back again.

Jasper shook his hand and nodded. “It’s nice to meet you too, Mr. Irvine.” He bowed a little as well. “I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting anything like this as Mr. Kaiba hadn’t informed me or my co-worker.” 

“Oh, the project has been going on before you showed up.” Scott assured. “Mr. Kaiba’s orders were ‘whatever happens get Kingdom finalized, do not stop working on it’.” He said, trying his best Kaiba impression.

The group shared a look between them, it did sound like something Seto would say for sure; he always did prioritize his work above his own safety back in the past, but things were different now! Jasper and Katsuya looked to each other before putting on an air of professionalism as they followed Mr. Irvine down a corridor with various doors lining side by side; a window showed them to be empty save for a chair and a visor set. Mr. Irvine explained that the idea was to have this as a stay-in game to play in the comfort of your home; the setup was simple, all you needed was their port -a custom ‘throne’ to relax in and to have your deck scanned in the armrest, the visor, and you were all set. It was definitely a better setup than the virtual pods from their days in Legendary Heroes, still…something about the explanation of the system didn’t sit right with some of the group members; Jasper tried pressing on some of the features and Mr. Irvine had an answer for everything; it’s multi-player to play with friends around the world, the seat is adjustable so you could lounge if you wished to, all updates regarding the game would mostly be on graphics or to follow with tournament rules (should Kingdom ever get popular enough to do online tournaments), and each play is a different experience with new stories each time. It actually did sound solid enough, there didn’t really seem to be room for loopholes of any kind. 

“Okay, uh what about the rooms with the curtains closed?” Miho asked, pointing to one beside her. “What’s the story with those.”

“Ah yes, those are hosting our other testers.” Mr. Irvine explained. “Since each player is unique the testing data is going to be the same, so we have some of our workers with the others for a private data recovering.” He pointed to a camera above the door. “Don’t worry, we have cameras like that inside to make sure that everything is work related and that no-one is trying to hack the system.”

“As expected of Mr. Kaiba.” Katsuya agreed. “He always valued the safety of his employees and those who beta test for him.” 

“He truly did go above and beyond his way.” Mr. Irvine turned back to the group. “Now then, you’re free to enter any room you want. I’ll be in the controls monitoring everything, and I’ll be speaking to you before you go into the game; just tutorial stuff, nothing too important.”

The unease was still there, but there wasn’t anything they could do; they had to stay with the plan and go into the game itself – at least, just to make sure Seto, Mokuba, and Suzie weren’t dragged in against their wills. Once they’ve cleared the air of that, they can go back to trying to track down the Big Five’s remaining three members and go back to a life of normalcy. So, one by one, everyone went into a room, had their decks scanned and adjusted the thrones to their liking before attaching the visors to their faces. All was well and done for; until the chairs sprung to life and clasps came out – pinning everyone down to the chairs, Mr. Irvine said that it was completely fine, they were there to ensure the safety of the workers and to make sure the players didn’t lash out while playing and struck the said workers.

Before anyone knew it, they were drawn into the game world. Drawn into the Kingdom. 


	23. Falsebound Kingdom: Welcome to the Jungle

He woke up with a splitting headache. Jasper sat up and held his head with a slight groan, what on earth had happened? He remembered being strapped down and the start of the game flashed by before he woke up here in this palace…wherever this palace was. He took a deep breath and started to explore his surroundings, there was no need to panic as that would just make the situation worse. So, where exactly was he? He was in a room with a table and a center map – no doubt this was where battle strategies were planned out. Why was he here? That’s what he had to find out first and foremost; fortunately for him, there was a letter that was laying on the table, picking it up he skimmed the contents – from what it sounded like, he was working for the emperor and that he was the best battle tactician in the group. That and Seto would be coming by to make sure everything was ready for their planned attack on the rebellion. He let out a sigh of relief, so Seto really was here! This just made things a lot easier, but also tacked on a lot more questions than it should; why was Seto here, was it willingly or by force, is this Seto his or a game avatar. It was concerning to say the least.

“I’m going to safely assume you’re Rowe, the genius behind the ping pong table in the office.” Came a cold voice. “If not, save whatever speech you’re about to give me and just tell me where to attack.”

Jasper turned and smiled at him. “It’s great to see you alive and well, Seto.” He relaxed some. “So, I have some questions about this game of yours and you’re going to answer before I turn in my two-weeks’ notice here and now.”

“Thank god, I was afraid I’d have to be in a ridiculous loop of pre-coded dialog.” Seto sat at the table. “Alright, let’s get this out of the way and then carry on before the rest of our allies show up; we don’t have much time.”

“Alright. I want you to start from the beginning on how Kingdom came to be, then I want you to tell me about the lead developer Scott Irvine, and finally, tell me how the hell we’re supposed to get out of this game.”

Seto hummed. “Let me answer the second question first; there’s no record of a Scott Irvine working for Kaiba Corp. my guess is that the remainder of the Big Five decided to get a third party’s help.” He started. “As for the beginning; Kingdom was designed shortly after I came up with Legendary Heroes, however unlike Heroes that was going to be for the future parks this was going to be a Multi-Player game that people could access from home – for people who are ill, bad weather, whatever the reason…it was going to have different stories with each update so the experience remained fresh with each login. Of course, as you know with the Big Five, I’ve had to keep this project a secret; I’ve done everything I could think of to keep things hidden from them, for the longest time it worked.”

“But they found out somehow.” Jasper finished. “I’m going to safely assume that it was around the time of Duelist Kingdom was when they found out.”

“Close, it was sometime after The Other Yugi did something with that shadow magic of his and left me in that coma state.” Seto shrugged. “They were free to have their rats go through everything to find what they can about this game; what they don’t know was that I had a strict set of people working on this, only three people; Mokuba, Myself, and Suzie…okay Ryou had helped as well, but he did so in the form of coded emails.” He looked back at him. “As I have mentioned before there are no records of a Scott Irvine working for my company, I don’t know who he is or what his role is in this mess that the Big Five’s remaining members have plotted but we’re going to find out…and how we get out of here…we beat the game.” He leaned back. “And that’s where you come in, you’re our ‘best tactician’ of the kingdom, when the rest of the group comes in, you’re going to lead us to victory.”

Of course, he had to be saddled with the difficult job, why wasn’t he surprised? Jasper huffed and thought for a while; there was no doubt in his mind that the others were in this world as well, the best course of action was to gather everyone together so they could all take down the boss of the game – The Emperor, and to do that they had to track down the group…fortunately, the game was kind and set the flags up to where each of the rebels would be located. He just had to convince the group to go along with whatever plot he had in mind. The down part was he didn’t really have time to think up something in the short amount of time he was given, just as he was starting to plan something out, the rest of their allies came walking in; Suzie, Miho, Mokuba, Revanna, Bonz, A man with a long black ponytail and a die earring, and Haga. Wait…Insector Haga?! Why the hell was he here? He groaned and looked to Seto for a silent explanation, he only got a shrug in reply – of course Seto wouldn’t know why he was here, he was dragged into this mess as well!

“Okay.” Jasper took a breath to settle his nerves. “I know this is sudden, but I think our best bet with the rebel alliance is to just capture them alive.” he explained. “This means, try to either weaken them or end the duel in a stalemate, the more of the alliance we get the more of a chance we have to discourage any further bands being created.”

Haga raised an eyebrow. “That is a ridiculous idea! We should just destroy them where they stand!”

“That mentality is going to get you killed.” The man huffed. “He has a point; we need to make an example of the rebels; where do we start?”

Jasper smiled; whoever this stranger was he was glad he had their support. “We have a fairly large revolt taking place on the Maryah-Denn Plains in the North, I’d suggest we start there…any volunteers?”

“It’s a pretty sizeable area, it looks like it’s home for Earth based monsters.” Suzie pointed out. “Monsters like insects, however I trust Haga as far as I can throw him, so you better go with him and take our new friend with.”

“Wait…why am I going? Shouldn’t I be here and direct the orders?”

Mokuba smirked and stood up. “Good thing I’m part of the imperial guards, Seto and I can take it form here you go on ahead and take care of things.”

That was how he had found himself on a horse and riding out on his way to the northern plains with Haga and their strange new ally who only introduced himself as Ryuji. He was sensing a pattern with the friends he made; Ryou, Ryota, and now Ryuji, the three should get together and start a boyband; Ryu. Jasper couldn’t help but to snicker a little to himself about the name and the bad joke. It was probably the only thing about this mission that made it bearable, a part of him was hoping that since where they were going was home to earth-based monsters that he would find another part of the friend group and recruit them for the massive boss take down. Of course, he had to find a way to word it without drawing suspicion from their ‘friend’ Mr. Irvine – he was helping the Big Five, but anyone with eyes can see that he was working on something else altogether and the assistance to the suits was just a bonus.

Arriving in the plains, they went about their business as they should. They’ve liberated a village and in the process they’ve found someone they were looking for; outside the village and in the plains was Katsuya who was still in his t-shirt and jeans, he dismounted his horse and started to make his way over but as fate would have it, Haga rushed forward and challenged the blonde to a duel despite the protests from Jasper to the side. With a huff, he just let the bug-brained idiot do whatever he wanted – he figured Katsuya would make quick work of him, and he did. It was bugs versus warriors as well as dragons, it wasn’t until a familiar Red-Eyes took to the field and fused with a warrior to create Red-Eyes Slash Dragon (Jasper had the sinking feeling in his gut that Lorelei gave him an extra Slash when they were remaking their decks). The moment the final blow was dealt to Haga, there was an eerie calm before the teal-haired boy started to fade from existence, they knew it was a game but…something about him fading from the virtual world looked painful! Once he faded for good, Ryuji and Jasper made their way up to Katsuya and asked if he knew anything that might make things different from here on out. Sadly, nothing was new; all the blond could tell them was that he was part of the rebel alliance…that meant he was unfortunately an enemy to the duo. Jasper decided to sign to him as he was talking, he had faith that Mr. Irvine wouldn’t know what was being signed so he wasn’t too worried.

“I’m sorry Katsuya, but, under the order of Emperor Heishin, I have to take you in.” {We’re trying to get everyone together to take down the final boss so we can leave soon.}

Katsuya caught on and had a grin as he did the same. “Sorry Jas, but you know that’s not going to happen.” {Let me find the others and meet up with you.}

“Then I guess we have to do this the hard way of things.” {Take Haga’s horse and go, we’ll give you a ten second head start}

*****

**Egyptian Gods Revival 5%**

Insector Haga groaned as he was released from the chair, he felt tired and weak and couldn’t really move in protest as the lab techs carried him out of the room and into one of the medical bays. Scott just shook his head; this was the winner of the regionals? He had to admit, this one was rather weak, still, his loss did go towards the revival of the Gods and once that was completed, he would have unimaginable power! Of course, the bonus was that this could work towards whatever the “Big Five” had to offer – just eliminate Seto Kaiba, and be paid a handsome sum of money. The money they could keep, Seto’s duelist soul was all he needed to revive the gods!

“Just how long do you intend to fool around?” A gruff voice asked.

“Patience Kogoro-san.” Scott grinned. “The game has only just started after all; you’ll get your wish soon.”

“Kaiba just lost an ally and you’re acting as though we’ve already won!”

“Tch. Haga wasn’t entirely a challenge, and this was the regional champion.” He waved his hand dismissively. “It’s important to eliminate the weak links first before going to the strong ones…Of course, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for Jonouchi to be taken down first, he would have given us more energy to work with.”

“You stay to your fairytales, just let us know when we can expect Kaiba good and gone.”

“I can see why you used to be Gozaburo’s right-hand man, Kogoro Daimon, you are just as ruthless as he ever was.” Irvine smirked. “All that power you two wielded together, you two made a powerful team and I can tell you would have brought the company to great heights had you taken over.”

The man puffed out his chest in pride. “So, you do recognize greatness when you see it…”

“Of course, I do, it’s a talent of mine. Now then, run along and I’ll call if anything changes.”

And changes did happen, somewhere in the plains Jasper and Ryuji met another player from the outside; Dinosaur Ryuzaki, and he definitely had a lot of information to share; he was invited by Seto Kaiba to test the new game alongside Insector Haga, they were pleased to be a part of something so great, the only downside was due to their rivalry they refused to work together on the same team so they opted to join different teams; this resulted in Dinosaurs vs. Machines, Ryuji did what he could in making sure to just weaken Ryuzaki to surrender or to a stalemate and even gave subtle hints as to what their plan was…the problem is; due to the hot-headed pride Ryuzaki had, he was going all out and his quest for being the best and not wanting to be eliminated on the first chapter led to his defeat. Ryuji cursed as the dinosaur duelist vanished before them, he looked to Jasper apologetically and returned to his horse, this was going to be a long ride for the both of them.

“I really shouldn’t have expected much, those two tend to play for wins.” Jasper started out. “But they still don’t deserve to have a painful extraction like that.”

“Do you think we’ll have an easier time with the others?” Ryuji asked.

“I’m praying, yes.” He nodded. “I know Kit-Kat will spread the word to the others so we can get everyone out safe and sound.”

“I’m holding you to that, Jasper.” He flicked the reins. “Let’s head back to the palace.”

*****

Things on the rebel side weren’t as easy either, Katsuya informed the group of the plan Jasper signed out to him and they decided to give it a try with Anzu and send her out. So far, what Yugi and Lorelei have learned so far was that they were the leader of the resistance group and their allies were Hiroto, Katsuya, Ryou, Mai, Anzu, Hanasaki, and Ryota. Just like out in the real world, they were still a strange little motley crew. The only other thing that the team knew was that Katsuya aimed to be riding out to see if he could find any hidden information in this game and that he would return he would be able to. This worried everyone, but they needed any and all information they could about the game or about Mr. Irvine. So, while he was out exploring and gathering information, the group decided to go through with the original plan and ending things as a tie and see if they couldn’t get one of their friends as ‘prisoners’ so they could build up and take down the final boss.

Anzu was a fairy user, they were confident with her they would get a tie. As she approached the forest where the Empire was, she was face to face with a familiar girl – Miho. It turned out that sometime after the battle with Katsuya and Haga, they decided to have her stationed by one of the smaller towns in hopes that a rebel would come her way. They conversed for a bit and both learned of something interesting; they were both hoping for a tie, Seto had confirmed in a meeting that Mr. Irvine didn’t work for KC, and the main boss was the Emperor. They agreed to the duel, after all…they were both fairy users and they knew each other’s play style, it should be a quick clean cut of a duel with the stalemate that they wanted. Should, was the key word in the sentence as Miho was watching with sheer horror as Anzu was faded from the game.

Miho was confused, they’ve planned this out and even gave subtle hints to what would work…so why didn’t the stalemate work? She thought for a few minutes; they both decked out, their life points weren’t that much of a difference – only 100 difference. Oh. Oh. The duel did end in a stalemate but the sheer horror was that the game counted Anzu as the loser because of the difference in life points. Not wanting to let the others suffer like this, Miho immediately rushed to her temporary room and started writing a quick message to her side as well as to Anzu’s side;

_Everyone,_  
_Be mindful of your lifepoints, the game will count the person with the ‘lowest’ points as the loser and will evict you from the game!_  
_-Miho_


	24. Falsebound Kingdom: Hall of the Mountain Duelist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse for my lack of update.
> 
> But I do have a reason as to why Falsebound is short: It's a combat heavy game from what I remember, so there's really not much room for dialog and fun banter. Besides, I see this as a blessing: Less writing means the quicker they're done the quicker we can get to the other arcs.

As Mai rode her way up to the base of the mountain, her mind went to the meeting she had with her friends; The Big Five…err Three were after revenge because of their medaling in their plans, she knew there was bad blood with the late Gozoburo’s workers and with Seto but to be bad enough that they want him dead? She couldn’t really help but feel her heart go out to him, sure Seto was a jerk at times, but he sure as hell didn’t deserved to have people attempt at his life like this. And that’s why she’s going to do everything in her power to make sure to ‘capture’ the opposing duelist and strengthen their team (well, it didn’t really matter which team had the most allies, they both agreed to take down the emperor so they could get the hell out of the game. But, she sure as hell wasn’t going to go down without a fight). 

The mountains were a perfect domain for her and her feathered friends, not only that but she had a good height to watch over the battlefields with her spyglass; and since the monsters were real, she could have one of the Harpy Ladies fly down with plans and actions to take to ensure that there wouldn’t be a forced eject from the game like what had happened to Anzu and Haga. Once she dismounted her horse, she started to set up base; it was a ledge with a cave which would act as shelter for the time being, and the ledge gave her the view of the nearby towns and battlefields that she wanted. It was the perfect spot indeed.

“Are you with the rebellion?” came a voice.

“Depends, are you with Seto?” Mai turned to look at the duelist behind her; the famous zombie duelist, Bonz. “You’re quite the ways from the wastelands, kid.”

“There’s a gravesite in the cave that I can use.” He brought up. “And yes, I am on Seto’s team; I decided to stake out the mountains to watch over any battle that may come up and to inform any other players that…if two players from the opposing sides meet…they’re going to be locked into battle.”

That last part made both of their bloods run cold. There wasn’t any avoiding the fight even with trying to stay out of it and being eyes for their allies; both got into position and looked at each other with determination, agreeing that they were going to give it their all and try to get things through and over with without getting forcefully ejected from the game. It was winged-beasts versus zombies, and actually the duel was quite fierce since both sides had gotten the power bonus from the mountain and the hidden graveyard. The scores were evened out, now all they had to do was deck each other out; after all, who would be stupid to try and challenge either Harpy’s Pet Dragon or Pumpking The King of Ghosts.

Feeling excited that this plan might actually be successful, Bonz went to draw his next card to bring him one step closer to a stalemate, but just as he was about to draw his next card his hand had bumped into some invisible force. Staring confused, he kept trying to no avail. He shot a panicked look to Mai, maybe he just had one too many cards in his hand, that’s it! He tried discarding one to the graveyard but like before he wasn’t able to, with a groan of aggravation, he just ended up summoning a random monster to the field. Mai had the same problem, she ended up summoning a Harpy Lady to the field – which boosted her dragon’s attack again. Both looked at each other with the same expression, it seemed that their friend in the real world had thought this through ahead of time and made it so the ‘draw out’ wouldn’t happen. That’s fine, there were other ways to go about this, they just had to fill up the rest of their field with monsters.

Wishful thinking; they were only allowed to have a certain number of monsters on the field. Well, they still had their spells and traps, surely, they had a throwaway? Nope, the game had played them without the duelists’ input as well as forcing a monster to attack; Pumpking was forced to attack and got hit by Mirror Wall, then the Dragon made a killing blow. Mai held her hand out, reaching to grab him to keep him from fading away – nope, Bonz was no more in this game. With a heavy heart, she started writing out notices to everyone. 

_Everyone,_   
_I don’t think there’s a way we can get a stalemate. The game just automatically played the duel for us and we lost another duelist. I regret to say, we may have to lose some people just to get to the final boss. I’m sorry._   
_-Mai Kujaku._

*****

Egyptian Gods Revival 15%

Scott couldn’t help but to laugh, did the players really think they could cheat the system like this? Child’s play, if they truly want to get out of the game, they would have to beat the game as it was intended. After all, Mr. Kaiba designed this to be a challenging experience for the players, it wouldn’t be much of a game if the players could deck out with ease.

“You’d think these players would learn.” Scott played with a pen. “After all, they’re friends with Mr. Kaiba, they should know that he looks at everything from every angle.” 

“Minus the fact you’re using his own game to bring to life your little fairytale.” A man behind him huffed as he cleaned his glasses. 

Scott chuckled. “A fairytale, Chikuzen? The Egyptian Gods are no fairytale, ancient beings with unimaginable powers, and like all divine beings they just need an appropriate offering to return to this world.” His eyes shone with the screen in front of him. “And ruling beside them will be the one who brought them back…they’ll reward me.”

Chikuzen placed his glasses back on his face and shook his head. “There are moments I wonder if it was wise to bail you out…but you have proven that this method will work. Anyone who is taken out of the game is weakened.”

“And when Seto is defeated and thrown out of the game, he’ll be vulnerable for you to kill him.” Scott finished for him. “We both get what we want, I get the living energy of these duelists to bring the Gods back to the world and you get a vulnerable Seto to get rid of.” 

*****

Flying above the mountains made it easy to have received Mai’s letter, reading it as well as watching Bonz fade away broke her heart. Revanna sighed and guided Cosmic Blazar Dragon to another part of the mountain; if there was one thing, she’s learned from the file that Mr. Irvine had given her when this mess had started, Ryou was an occult deck user which meant he would be lurking near the wastelands in or outside of the mountain. She didn’t really want to fight him, but she had a feeling that maybe if they had allies outside of the game that perhaps they could take out the foe from the outside? It was a longshot, especially with how violent the extraction was. But there really wasn’t any other way to get out of this mess except to duel for their side and grow one step closer to beating the boss and ending the game for good. 

As Ryou had left the cavern, he was greeted to the sight of Revanna; they had a silent conversation in their eyes, both didn’t know what else they could do but they agreed on one thing and that was to duel and give it their all. Both took their stances and went all out, Ryou sent ghouls and fiends after her dragons – Dark Necrofear was his ace on the field and he had truly believed he had the upper hand, but Revanna turned it around with one of her star creatures and sent Ryou back to the world of the reality. Like others before, she had sent a message to the others saying that Ryou had fallen.

“Oh Cosmic.” She petted her dragon on the snout. “I hope he’s alright.” The dragon snorted and she got back on to take to the skies once more. 

Ryou was indeed alright, he was sitting upright and held a bloodied pen in his hand and looked at the dead researchers on the floor. No, this wasn’t Ryou – he had become fatigue when he was ejected from the game, the Spirit of the Ring had taken over as he was in a stronger state than his host. Standing up he took one of the clipboards and looked it over; Egyptian Gods Revival Project, so this is what that foolish man was planning to do? He knows not what he’s meddling with, he sneered up at the camera and tossed the clipboard to the side.

“You have some nerve up there.” Bakura spat. “You have no idea of what you’re dealing with.”

Scott just chuckled on the end of the intercom. “And I suppose you do?” he challenged.

“I’ve seen their power first hand, and it’s nothing a simple mortal like you can ever hope to control.” He narrowed his eyes. “You would be burned alive if you go through with this.”

“Then I’ll die knowing that I brought them back to rule a new kingdom! The new age of the Pharaohs is here, and there’s nothing you can do or say that will change that.”

Bakura chuckled and grinned a wicked grin, “You’re right about that; The New Age is here, and he’s going to bring The Devourer with him. You’re not going to last a second with them, I’ve seen them at work; death, madness, you name it, they’ll bring it.” 

Scott elected to ignore him, nothing but empty words. Not like they would be of any use, it was just him and the security here; if this white-haired fiend was smart, he wouldn’t dare attacking him head on. He was perfectly safe, the Gods would thank him for this, and the first to go was definitely that arrogant one – The Pharaoh is back, what nonsense was that?


End file.
